Burnham's speech poses questions.

Andy Burnham's speech at the PPL AGM last week appears to have posed more questions than it answered.

When the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was spirited back to his Trafalgar Square office clutching an Everton v Sheffield Wednesday 1966 FA Cup Final programme - a gift from the collecting society's CEO and chairman Fran Nevrkla - he could not have envisaged the hornet's nest he had stirred up.

Seemingly, his half-hour at the mic in the bowels of the British Museum had elicited nothing new in the way of Government commitments or its thinking on the issues facing the industry.

However, closer examination of Burnham's words relating to ISPs has worried many executives. They now believe the Government is pushing back the timetable on Commitment 15 from February's Creative Britain document, which promised to consult on legislation "that would require ISPs and rights holders to co-operate in taking action on illegal file- sharing - with a view to implementing legislation by April 2009".

Originally, that consultation had been expected after Easter. Now BERR (Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform), the Government department taking the lead on it, can seemingly not give a date when it is expected. Some observers now believe it will not appear until the autumn. This is despite sources suggesting that all interested parties have already submitted their evidence, the "vast majority of work has been done" and the consultation is ready to publish.

That consultation was supposed to run concurrent with the negotiations between the music industry and the ISP community to find a workable voluntary agreement on illegal filesharing. Those talks have stalled, but insiders suggest any progress made has only come because of the threat of legislation hanging over their heads. "It's always been made clear that it is a parallel process," says a source, who adds that the consultation is at an advanced stage while negotiations with ISPs have stalled. "So this is a significant shift in emphasis because one (action) is now conditional on another."

By delaying the threat of imminent legislation, the worry is the ISP community will drag its heels on talks with the music industry. A source says, "We thought any progress that was being made was because of the threat of ...