Siôn Simon’s departure spells further danger for Digital Economy Bill

Siôn Simon, the junior minister who would
have been piloting the Digital Economy Bill through the Commons, has left his
job in order to run for Mayor of Birmingham.

A number of news outlets suggested today
that this would spell danger for the Bill, which will have to be pushed through
the Commons at breakneck speed.

In fact, the greatest danger is that
whoever picks up the task will have an uncertain grasp of the problems in the
legislation.

For instance, while libraries and
universities have understood what the Bill really means for them, and are pushing
to make sure they do not find themselves liable for the copyright infringements
of students, this problem is only now starting to be understood by the rest of
industry.

Last year, the Federation of Small
Businesses raised this concern with ministers, and we are hearing that some
major food café chains and hoteliers are raising questions, the overall costs
to industry just haven’t been considered by the government.

But these costs were absent from the
consultation and the impact assessment that BIS made.

Whoever replaces Siôn Simon is going to
have to get their head around these problems, and make sure that innocent people
and businesses are not punished, or we’re going to find Labour passing a very
damaging piece of legislation.

Meanwhile, if you run a business or
community centre with open wifi, and could find yourself forced to withdraw that
service, damaging your business and the interests of tour customers, please
write to the Labour, Liberal and Conservative front bench teams. That’s Stephen
Timms (at BIS, Lab) Don Foster (DCMS, LD) and Jeremy Hunt (BIS, Con).