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).