Digital Economy Bill – Response from Maria Miller, Conservative MP
Before the 2nd reading in the House of Commons for the Digital Economy Bill, I emailed my local MP, Maria Miller, for her viewpoints on the situation. I had almost given up hope on receiving an official response but I have received a reply today. I have strong objections on how this piece of important legislation was pushed through the “wash-up” process before the dissolution of Parliament.
I and many others looked on in horror as events unfolded during the live broadcast in the House of Commons. To paraphrase, creativity is more important than freedom, was one of the alarming arguments proposed to promote the bill.
Here is the response in full:
Thank you for your recent correspondence concerning the Digital
Economy Bill. I share your concern about the way this piece of
legislation has been handled by the Government. Since the Dissolution
of Parliament, there are no longer any MPs, but I can continue with
casework/correspondence.
The Bill contained important provisions regarding the regulatory
environment for the digital and creative industries. It is completely
unacceptable that the Government failed to allocate the sufficient
time in the House of Commons for proper legislative scrutiny. It is
wrong to push through these issues and because of this I did not
support the Bill and I abstained from the vote.
The reason that I did not vote against the Bill is that a number of
the measures within it have great merit – particularly tackling online
copyright infringement. This is an extremely serious issue that costs
the creative industries hundreds of millions of pounds each year. I
want to make sure that Britain has the most favourable intellectual
property framework in the world for innovators, digital content
creators and high tech businesses.
Also, the measures in the Bill designed to tackle illegal peer to peer
file sharing set up a proportionate regime that would, only following
public consultation, repeated warnings and due process, lead to people
having their internet connection temporarily suspended. It will not,
as many have suggested, lead to people being disconnected without an
appeal. Even if people are disconnected they will be able to sign up
to another ISP immediately without penalty.
However, the Government should not push through such significant
issues without proper debate – the handling of this Bill means that
the debate on copyright is not over and my Party will seek to revisit
options for a balanced solution as part of a broader update of
copyright following the General Election.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.
With best wishes,
Maria Miller, Parliamentary Candidate
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