Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

We are revisiting some very well trodden territory here, but why not? The Bill deals with the disclosure of personal information from the DWP and others for the purpose of operating the help scheme, so the amendment, which seeks to place obligations not on the BBC but on the National Audit Office, cannot be accepted. However, in his helpful way, the noble Viscount, in what was described as an ““impeccable”” contribution by another noble Lord, has sought to tease out an important issue regarding the operation of the help scheme and securing value for money. Our expectation is that the BBC will operate the help scheme. The details of how it will do that have not yet been settled, but it must be open and transparent. The BBC Trust and executive are both absolutely clear on the need for that. The BBC agreement makes provision for it to publish an annual report about its switchover-related activities, which will, of course, include the help scheme. Accounts of expenditure on the help scheme will need to be produced and audited, as required under the scheme agreement made under clause 39 of the BBC agreement. The NAO does not have unrestricted access to the BBC, for reasons we debated at length during the passage of the Communications Act 2003 and, more recently, as part of the charter review process. However, clause 79 of the agreement puts the BBC Trust under an obligation to examine the value for money achieved by the BBC in the use of public funds, and gives the NAO a key role in contributing to the fulfilment of that obligation. The detailed arrangements set out in the clause are based on those originally introduced following the Communications Act debates in your Lordships’ House. They require the trust to discuss regularly with the Comptroller and Auditor-General the scope of its audit programme and which individual reviews within that programme would be particularly suited to the NAO. The trust must then make arrangements with the NAO and other suitable organisations to carry out individual value-for-money reviews in accordance with the audit programme. The obligations on the trust to secure value for money will apply to its involvement in the operation of the help scheme. I hope that my description of the involvement of the NAO in the process reassures your Lordships that the existing requirements on the trust to act transparently and to secure value for money will also apply to its role in helping to establish and fund the help scheme. The noble Lord, Lord Fowler, asked what would happen if there were any overruns on cost.£600 million will be ring-fenced within the settlement and will therefore not form part of the BBC’s baseline at the end of the settlement. If costs exceed the estimates that we have set out, they will not be met by the BBC but by the public purse in different ways; we have yet to determine how that will actually be achieved.