Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

The hon. Gentleman has been assiduous in referring to this problem and has spoken for his constituents in digital switchover debates as regards Sky’s monopoly in Rhondda and services for poorer people in rural regions. I would welcome the Secretary of State’s comments on that. As I have said before, it is an entirely legitimate request. When digital television is rolled out, we want it to be available to all with no one left behind. The hon. Gentleman should make those recommendations again, very strongly, to the Department. All this means that many people in receipt of targeted help will soon find that they are stuck with obsolete technology while the world has moved on. That is the view of Help the Aged, for example. It has also been argued that the use of such technology, which will restrict access to the full range of channels, will unfairly protect the BBC from competition. As the Secretary of State will be aware, the European Commission ruled that the switchover programme in Berlin constituted illegal state aid because of the subsidies provided to broadcasters, but that the provision of free set-top boxes to low-income households was within the rules. Have her hands been tied in any way by that ruling? We have serious concerns about the intention, as stated in the Bill, to hand over people’s personal information such as social security entitlement and benefits details. Given the Government’s appalling record on dealing with such sensitive information, we should proceed with great caution. Their growing Big Brother tendency continues apace, and we must have in place the corrective legislative safeguards. The Bill should become obsolete once digital switchover is completed in 2012. Why is not a sunset clause built in to ensure that it ceases to be law on the day that analogue switchover is achieved, or at least shortly afterwards? I was relieved when the Secretary of State said that that can be examined in Committee. Under data protection principles, all data should be destroyed once it has been used. On reading the Bill, it is hard to know how those principles will be applied. Will data be destroyed on a rolling basis, as each region is switched over, or when the final stage is reached? If it is the former, will the Secretary of State report regularly to Parliament on when regional data have been destroyed? Will people have the option to opt out so that their information is not shared? Let me echo what my hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr. Harper) said about data security, particularly with regard to Northern Ireland. As the Secretary of State knows, many people there still receive Army or Government pensions and could be put in an enormously difficult position were that to become more widely known. Have the Government considered that, and is the Secretary of State able to assure us that there are sufficient safeguards and protections to guard against misuse of the data in that context? On the wider issue of war pension information, it is worrying that no service charities have been consulted in any way on the security implications of the measure. This is an important Bill because it provides one of the few opportunities for Parliament to debate the process of digital switchover. That is a massive undertaking by anyone’s standards, yet the Government have placed us in an extraordinary position because we do not know what it will cost, what money will be available, or what the process will be. We know almost nothing except that the Government have a woeful track record on major projects. We are persuaded of the arguments in favour of the digital switchover because we believe that Britain must be at the forefront of the digital revolution if we are to compete in an increasingly technologically driven world. Digital television is here to stay and it has the potential to improve and enhance people's lives and to help communities. We support the principle, but we shall be seeking assurances and answers in Committee, and will be watching carefully to see whether this is one project that the Government can deliver on time and on budget.