Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

A key requirement of the help scheme is that it provides suitable equipment to those eligible for assistance. Like the Consumer Experts Group, we were concerned that equipment available in today’s market was designed to reduce costs and therefore might not be suitable for the help scheme. So, with the help of the Consumer Experts Group, we have developed the core receiver requirements for equipment procured by the help scheme. We consulted on the core receiver requirements between July and September last year, and it was published on 13 December. The requirement also formed part of the Official Journal of the European Union notice issued in January as part of the procurement exercise. The noble Lord mentioned the pilot in Whitehaven, which has been chosen as a flagship project and will switch in October 2007. Given the timing of Whitehaven, it is possible that there will be no set-top boxes matching the core receiver requirements, so it may be that the scheme operator has to provide boxes currently on the market which most closely match the requirements. Both the BBC and the DCMS expect that boxes for the main scheme will fully comply with the core receiver requirements. The important point is that boxeswith audio descriptions and the other important characteristics the noble Lord mentioned may not be the core box that is eventually used, but they will be provided in the Whitehaven experiment to ensurethat these people are not disadvantaged. Audio description is already available in Whitehaven via Sky. We would also welcome a DDT audio description solution, to provide residents with that extra choice. I hope that the noble Lord is reassured on his important point, that partially sighted people in the Whitehaven pilot will not be disadvantaged. It may not be the box that is eventually used, but we will ensure that the equipment provided by the help scheme evolves over time to make best use of advances in technology. The help scheme will make a significant investment in equipment on behalf of those eligible. We and the BBC want to use this investment to ensure, first, that better equipment would make switchover an easier process—the significant work that the DTI led in 2003 and 2004, which was carried out by the Generics Group, identified this as a very important issue—and, secondly, better equipment should reduce the level of support visits needed. The amendment will not have any positive effect for people eligible to the scheme. In fact, it might have the opposite effect because it would prevent the scheme from improving the core receiver specification over time as technology improves.