Digital Economy Bill gets passed in wash up period

The controversial Digital Economy Bill has been rushed through the House of Lords in the run up to the election, and has been passed into law this week, which has angered some MPs.

Since the Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the date of the general election would be May 6th there has been a mad rush to get any loose ends tied up and any controversial Bills and proposals rushed into law before parliament in dissolved. This also included the Digital Economy Bill, which was one of the major Bills that ministers seemed determine to deal with in the wash up period.

Ministers have now been accused of a stitch up because they rushed the Digital Economy Bill through to get it passed into law before the up and coming election. Part of the Bill is aimed at protecting artists and copyright holders, but penalises broadband and internet users and blocks certain websites that are seen as encouraging file sharing or containing a substantial amount of copyrighted material.

MPs are angry that ministers rushed the controversial Bill through but with a majority one hundred and forty two votes it was passed into law this week. The wash up period is the period before parliament is dissolved, and the Digital Economy Bill was one of ten Bills that ministers were trying to get through within this wash up period.

One former MP said that consumers would be upset that the Bill had not been scrutinised more closely and that it had been voted through, albeit reluctantly, by other MPs. He said: “There might be a deal with the Tory front bench and the Lib Dem front bench but there are 20,000 people who have taken the time to e-mail their MPs about this in the last seven days alone. They are extremely upset that this bill will not have the scrutiny it deserves and requires.”

Source – BBC