Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Con)

My Lords, I am conscious of time and that there is another debate still to come. If I may say, very briefly, because the Government Deputy Chief Whip is in her place right now, I am hugely grateful to the Government for scheduling these debates today in the Chamber, but she may have heard frustration in the last debate about the time available for contributions. She might want to consider, if we were to do a similar sort of exercise in future, whether two debates on a sitting Friday might be a more realistic way of accommodating this kind of debate—but I say that with all due respect and huge thanks for the time that has been allocated. I am also very grateful for all the contributions to the debate. We have heard speeches from Members reflecting the expertise in the House, as well as the expertise we have been able to enjoy on the committee and which the committee continues to enjoy. I welcome back my noble friend Lord McNally—I call him my noble friend as both a noble friend in the past and during our time on the committee. He blew a bit of a hole in some of the euphemistic tributes that were paid to me by others by describing me as rather strict in my term as chair, but I am very grateful for all the kind remarks about me and the committee’s work. I restate what I said at the beginning: it was a real pleasure to chair the committee. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Pack, on his great maiden speech and the emphasis that he put on email newsletters. They are important, not just to local media but to national media. One thing which is worth us reflecting on is that the reason a lot of news organisations are now investing in these newsletters is because it reintroduces for them a direct relationship with their readers, and it takes out the aggregators—the platforms—that my noble friends Lord Lansley and Lord Gilbert referred to, in terms of the control that they exercise. I look forward to more from the noble Lord, Lord Pack, in the future. Time prevents me from going through in any great detail all the various points that have been raised by other noble Lords. The Minister covered a huge amount of the points that were raised in her response to the debate, and I am grateful to her for that. I know that she is a diligent member of the Front Bench and takes her responsibilities in the department seriously. It is somewhat disappointing, though, that we leave this debate not much better informed about some of these important issues than we started, in terms of where the Government are going on SLAPPs, for example, or when they are going to come forward with their local media strategy. I was pleased that she was as positive as she was about the CMA and the digital markets legislation, and I am grateful to her for that, as I know those watching this debate will be. On the issue of ownership by a foreign Government, as the Minister will know and as I said—and as restated by my noble friend Lord Young—time really is of the essence here as far as ownership of the Telegraph is concerned. It really cannot be left unresolved. As I said, I am pleased that there are signs of a potential deal coming to an end, but that secondary legislation has to be in place. Bearing in mind all that the Minister said in response to an Oral Question before the Easter break, I really thought she would have been able to give us some comfort that those regulations would be coming forward very soon. I urge her to go back to the department today and say, “Keeping on saying that this is complicated and requires more time is not good enough”. The Government have now had nine months to sort this out, and there does not appear to be any legitimate reason why they have not done so. Again, I am grateful to the Minister for her efforts, but I urge her to press even harder. As I say, I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions today.