Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

My Lords, I owe an apology to the noble Lord, Lord Howard, and my noble friend Lord Maxton. I was asked on an earlier amendment what would happen to the £600 million if it were not all spent. I regret that in my reply I forgot to respond to that highly specific and germane point. We do not regard that money as part of the BBC licence settlement as such; it is additional to that and is specifically for the help scheme. If less than £600 million is spent on it—the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, indicated that he thought that might be the case; certainly my noble friend Lord Maxton said that—the Government would take into account any surplus, which would obviously affect the settlements for any future licence fee. We do not regard the £600 million as just an additional extra to the licence fee; it is intended for the specific purposes of this scheme.