Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

That is precisely my point. My comments were made in the spirit of inquiry; they were not an attempt to catch the Minister out. In fact, the point of the question was to enable us to do precisely what the Minister has urged Members on both sides of the House to do—to consider the substance of the Bill, and to remind ourselves that it enables help to be targeted at the most vulnerable. We Conservative Members agree with the Minister that we must work as hard as we can with him to ensure that the Bill does precisely that. I am grateful to the Minister for clearing up the matter raised by the Disability Rights Commission, and for accepting that there is a clear distinction between being certified blind or partially sighted and being registered blind or partially sighted. As he said, someone who is certified blind or partially sighted goes to their optician or, more accurately, their ophthalmologist, to receive certification, but that does not mean that they are eligible for benefits. As such people are not registered blind or partially sighted, they are not on the local authority list.