House Of Lords Votes for an Independent Review of the ECC

Amendment 28 was moved by Baroness Merron as follows:

28: After Clause 74, insert the following new Clause—

“Independent review of the electronic communications code

(1) Within the period of three months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State must appoint an independent person to undertake a review of the effect of—

(a) the electronic communications code, and

(b) the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act 2021, on the deployment of 1 gigabit per second broadband and other forms of telecommunications infrastructure.

(2) The review under subsection (1) must, in addition to any other matters the Secretary of State deems appropriate, include consideration of—

(a) the extent to which revisions to the electronic communications code have secured progress towards His Majesty's Government's targets relating to telecommunications infrastructure, (b) the balance of rights and responsibilities of land- owners and telecommunications operators, and (c) the impact of this Act on the level of competition in the telecommunications sector.

(3) The independent person may make recommendations to the Secretary of State on matters including (but not limited to)—

(a) potential further revisions to the electronic communications code, (b) potential amendments to—

(i) legislation, or

(ii) guidance, relating to the valuation of land used to host telecommunications infrastructure, and (c) the potential benefits of imposing a requirement for telecommunications operators to report annually to OFCOM on their investment in new infrastructure.

(4) Upon receipt of the report from the independent person, the Secretary of State must— (a) publish the report,

(b) prepare a response to the report, and

(c) lay a copy of the report and response before Parliament.”

Speeches by members of the House of Lords included the following:

“My Lords, I would have made a very similar speech to the noble Lord. As he has made my speech for me, I will not keep the House any longer, other than to say that when the big guy is versus the small guy it is beholden on us to support the small guy.”

“I do not contribute to this debate with any enthusiasm because, having made my points at all previous stages of this Bill through your Lordships’ House, it disappoints me that we are here where we are. I will repeat some of my points briefly. Like everybody else, I think it is important to emphasise that I, too, wholly endorse fast and full rollout of high-quality broadband to all parts of the UK.

As has been said already by others, my concern is really on behalf of the site owners. It is important for us to keep in mind, particularly if we have not been following this Bill closely, that when we talk about site owners this is not just about wealthy landowners but a whole range of different smallholdings and community property and that sort of thing. A whole manner of different people are involved. They were told that the reduction in rental income would be reinvested by the mobile network operators in delivering the rollout. It seems that there remains a lack of confidence on their part, because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate how the new code is working. They are expected to engage in negotiations with commercial entities on trust while fearing their loss is at someone else’s gain. We have heard the extent of this in other groups earlier this evening.

As I have said before, the benefit of rollout relies on the willingness of site holders to participate; when we rely on people to succeed, they deserve to be heard and listened to. When their concerns are about fairness, they cannot be ignored. I am concerned about not causing any delay to rollout, but the arguments and evidence we have heard today is that ignoring the concerns of site owners is doing just that.”

The full debate may be of interest to landowners with mobile phones masts or any other telecommunications infrastructure on, over or under their property assets.

The transcript of the Hansard Debate can be found here: Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill.

The voting can be found here: Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill - Lords' votes in Parliament - UK Parliament.

Concorde Solicitors Limited provide specialist advice in relation to property, mobile phone masts and other telecommunications apparatus.

We have significant experience in advising property owners with phone masts on their property where the agreement is coming to an end or where operators are seeking to install new phone masts.

We also have many years’ experience in the removal of phone masts and other telecommunications apparatus from redevelopment sites.

Contact Concorde Solicitors Limited for advice in relation to;

• Existing phone masts
• Phone mast removal
• Current legislation
• Changes to the law
• Action by network operators to impose phone masts or other electronic communications apparatus on property

Email: Contact@concorde-solicitors.co.uk

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