Speeches by Wright.

“It is certainly very expensive. I know lawyers who charge big fees, but none of them would come close to that. My right hon. Friend makes his point, and again, the Minister will have another opportunity when he speaks. It is not good enough, I am afraid, for hints and oblique references to be made. We are owed a clear …”

“I will give my right hon. Friend a lawyer’s favourite answer to any question: “It’s complicated.” But here is the point: the only legal analysis being offered here—the only explanation—comes from the Opposition Benches. The Government are not giving us anything. If he is wrong in what he says, we need to hear why from …”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I welcome the Minister to his new responsibilities, and on behalf of the many JLR employees in my constituency, welcome anything the Government can and will do to get JLR back to business as usual as soon as possible. On our broader defences, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 is 35 years old, and there are many who believe …”

“I understand the point that my hon. Friend makes, and it is reinforced by the point made by our hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) in reading from the agreement as to how any disputes are resolved. But I want to focus on the position now and the legal justification that the Governme…”

“I understand the argument that the hon. Gentleman is making, but why does he think that the last Government did not make the deal?”

“It is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb). I admire his principles and his persistence in his advocacy for his Chagossian constituents, and I know that he would recognise that his predecessor did the same. There is no dispute that Diego Garcia is crucial to the UK’s security and that of its a…”

“The hon. Gentleman is as good as his word.”

“Order. This is just a gentle reminder that we are aiming for four minutes. I will not impose a formal time limit unless I have to, but it would help if we could keep close to four minutes.”

“Order. I do not need to point out that this is a very popular debate. I remind hon. Members that if they wish to be called to speak, they should please stand. To give you an indication, something like four minutes each should allow us to get everybody in, given the numbers who wish to speak, so please bear that in mind…”

“That is exactly the point. What I am slightly worried about here—again feel free, either of you, to comment on this—is that these logics become somewhat circular. You are right: you will be entitled to ask that platforms consider whether they have reasonable grounds to infer this but what they have reasonable grounds t…”

“Welcome all. We have had these conversations before, but let me ask you each to think about some of the implications of the Online Safety Act for Ofcom. I think this will probably apply, unless Mr Speaker tells me otherwise, to all the questions. Please don’t all feel you have to answer every question, but I will ask t…”

“The problem is your statutory objectives include the word “proportionate” most of the time. You will have to decide what you think proportionate means to apply that test, which is why I am asking for a sense. I appreciate what Jessica says that they are all context-specific, but as a general approach. Again, we are int…”

“Or to disclose it to you without it needing to be public information.”

“I know that Jessica wants to come in, but I will ask you very specifically about illegal content. You will understand that our concerns are slightly broader than what is a contravention of the criminal law but obviously contraventions of the criminal law are a significant part of what this Committee is concerned about.…”

“Yes, I completely agree with that. I have one other thing, if I am not hogging it too much. The question of proportionality, as you say, is fundamental here. Is it Ofcom’s view that the right way to look at proportionality here is to balance the downsides for the platform in the disclosure of this data with the upsides…”

“Presumably, there is a distinction between the material that you want to see as regulators and the material that the platform publish. Most of the IP issues apply to publication, not to what you as regulators can see.”

“The first of those cases, as we all know, will be significant for setting the tone.”

“You are prepared to litigate the issue if it comes to it?”

“I want to return to this issue of algorithmic transparency. You will appreciate from our perspective the original logic for this piece of legislation was suspicion—let us put it no higher than that—that a business model within these companies drives algorithms that promote bad content because it keeps people on the pla…”