Member

I want to say a word or two on these amendments, which I broadly support. First, on the amendments on innovation, the points my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham made are right. I am not a fan of putting things in primary legislation for no reason, but my noble friend has explained that the benefit of putting this in is that once you have a non-competitive situation, but do not have those incentives on the companies to innovate in order to win customers and drive down costs, you have to have something which reminds people, or gives them a duty, to use innovation and technology. The fact that several amendments cover both infrastructure and investment in those bigger capital items, which my noble friend Lord Moylan referred to, is helpful but there is also the amendment that refers specifically to the customer-facing elements.