Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Clause 1, page 1, line 13, at end insert— ““( ) A local authority may, at the request of a relevant person, supply a relevant person with dwelling information for use (by the person to whom it is supplied or another relevant person) in connection with switchover help functions.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, first, I thank the Minister for ensuring that we did not convene for Report until the Digital Switchover Help Scheme had been published. It has been most helpful to have sight of the scheme. Amendment No. 1 was tabled in Grand Committee and taken away in order to give the Minister further time to reflect on the problem of ensuring that the digital switchover help scheme is available to those who live in multiple dwellings—blocks of flats, old people’s homes and so on. Paragraph 4 of the scheme gives the administrator considerable flexibility in the treatment of multiple dwellings—rightly so, in my view. After all, the appropriate method of dealing with one eligible person in a block of 100 flats may be quite different from the way that one would deal with an old people’s home with eight residents, all of whom were eligible for assistance. It would be helpful if the Minister could elaborate a little on how he sees the administrator using his powers. For example, in view of the difficulties that may be encountered with a set-top aerial of the type described in sub-paragraphs 2(6) and (7) of Schedule 3 of the scheme, can the Minister inform the House of the types of assistance that an administrator would be able to provide via a notification under paragraph (2)(b) of Clause 17 of the scheme? As already suggested, it would be of great assistance to the House to have an indication of how far the administrator would be able to go in order to help this category of eligible person. I beg to move.