Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

moved Amendment No. 17: 17: After Clause 5, insert the following new Clause— ““Digital switchover scheme This Act shall not come into force before the digital switchover scheme is published and presented to both Houses of Parliament.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this is thesame sunrise clause that I put forward in Grand Committee, but this time it is with rather different motives. In Grand Committee, the amendment reflected the uncertainty surrounding the scheme. That was before we had in our hands the digital switchover help scheme, which has been welcomed. It certainly gives a great deal of certainty about the shape of the scheme. Now we can make a judgment on the scheme and the Bill as a whole. But there are still a few loose ends. As I mentioned in Grand Committee, in slightly less than seven months’ time, we will be beginning the process of digital switchover in Whitehaven in Cumbria. In Grand Committee, we discussed whether the procurement of accessible equipment for audio description could be made in time for switchover in Whitehaven. The noble Lord, Lord Evans, said: "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””.—[Official Report, 22/3/07; col. GC 266.]" There is no DTT box currently on the mainstream market that can receive audio description, which is one of the main core receiver requirements. There is a specialist DTT receiver available from Portset that delivers audio description and talking menus, but it has been indicated to those who have briefed me that this product is likely to be prohibitively expensive. However, as the Government have acknowledged, audio description is currently available in Whitehaven via Sky subscription and the Sky freesat service. The noble Lord, Lord Evans, also said thatthe Government would welcome a DTT audio description solution. It is only fair to point out that the Government were in a position to deliver a DTT audio description solution by commissioning accessible equipment as recommended by the consumer expert group, but they have not done so in time for Whitehaven. Unless the Government can commission a set-top box that can receive audio description before November, blind and partially sighted people in Whitehaven are likely to be offered Sky freesat to be able to receive audio description. There are three reasons why that is not an ideal solution. First, as was pointed out in Grand Committee, freesat gives access to audio description but doesnot deliver accessible remote controls or otheruseful features such as voice output of channel or programme identification. As the noble Lord, Lord Evans, acknowledged in Grand Committee, better equipment should reduce the level of support visits needed by staff working for the targeted help scheme contractor. Secondly, it will undermine the principle that there should be one standard equipment offer available under the scheme, designed to meet minimum agreed standards for accessibility as set out by the Government. The position of the Consumer Expert Group is that providing accessible equipment as standard will benefit the maximum number of people while excludingno one. Thirdly, it will also undermine the Government’s policy of platform neutrality, which the Minister has been eloquent about, in the promotion of digital television. Organisations such as Sense and the RNIBare seeking the following commitments from the Government: that they will explore all options to ensure that the Whitehaven targeted help scheme delivers a fully accessible box to all help scheme recipients rather than an off-the-shelf, inaccessible box; that if option 1 is fully explored and provednot to be possible, they will discuss with specialist equipment manufacturers such as Portset the possibility of providing blind and partially sighted people in Whitehaven with a solution that provides audio description and some form of spoken menu output—at a minimum, spoken channel and programme identification; or, if those two options are not possible and blind and partially sighted people in Whitehaven are given off-the-shelf equipment that delivers audio description but does not meet the other core receiver requirements agreed by the Government, they must be offered the chance to exchange that for more accessible equipment when it is commissioned by the Government for use in other regions. In Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Evans promised to consider these points. I look forward to hearing more about the Government’s plans in that respect. Fourthly, equipment commissioned for use in other regions of the country, including borders in 2008, must meet the core receiver requirements. The organisations briefing me have been told that the BBC and the DCMS expect that boxes for the main scheme will fully comply with the core receiver requirements but would appreciate a significantly more robust assurance than this. I hope that the Minister can give some of those assurances, as that has been the entire purpose of moving the amendment. I beg to move.