Communications: Digital Britain

My Lords, I have two quick questions. First, will the Minister confirm or deny the report in the Times this morning that: "““Top executives from media and telephone companies will go to 10 Downing Street to hear about Digital Britain before the plans are presented to Parliament at lunchtime””?" Did they do that? Of course, if they did, that would have been smack against the Ministerial Code. We all get into problems when rules are not observed. Secondly, following the important point of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, will the Minister explain what is meant when the Secretary of State says: "““We will also explore how we can establish a sustainable public service organisation which offers scale and reach alongside the BBC, building on the strength of Channel 4””?" ““Public service organisation”” sounds like much more than partnership, which is what the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, was actually arguing for. It seems to imply some kind of merger for Channel 4. The Government and others have already floated ideas of Channel 4 coming together with either BBC Worldwide or Channel 5. Is not the essential problem there that BBC Worldwide hates the idea of the former and Channel 4 hates the idea of the latter? Both those options appear to have been torpedoed. As we are in a consultative period, and leaving aside the licence fee, can we take it that, in planning forward, no new public money will be available to help Channel 4? Is that the implication of what is being said? It is important that we are clear where the Government stand on this.