Mr Iain Sproat: There are many amendments and changes in this group of amendments and I assure the House that I do not aim to speak at such length again during further consideration of the Bill. I announced on the final day of Committee that the Government intended to end the current practice of advertising on ancillary services, following representations that my Department had received from the Independent...
Mr Iain Sproat: May I address myself to the hon. Member for Moray (Mrs. Ewing) first? She has explained the purpose of her new clause. In responding, I shall refer to the "warden requirement" as a convenient shorthand for the term in the qualifying criteria for the concessionary television licence scheme: a person whose function is to care for the needs of (the residents)". As we understand it, the new...
Mr Iain Sproat: I will certainly look at the anomaly in the hon. Lady's constituency, and I will see where that leads me. On new clause 18, the Government sympathise with the concern expressed by caravan owners and the tourist industry that a second television licence may be needed for those who wish to watch television in caravans. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet (Mr. Gale) must...
Mr Iain Sproat: I will try to speak at no great length. I start by saying that this is certainly a serious issue, but the Labour party's proposals are not the answer. The rig ht hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) explained that new clause 12 would require the Secretary of State to review the list of events in clause 91 within 12 months, and annually thereafter. Following the review, the Secretary of...
Mr Iain Sproat: No doubt my right hon. Friend will consider doing so, given what has happened tonight, but she will make up her mind after the House has decided what the process should be.
Mr Iain Sproat: No, I must get on. The right hon. Member for Copeland explained that new clause 15 would enable the Secretary of State to declare void any contract to televise an event that he or she concluded was not in the national interest. That would entail wiping out, at the decree of a Secretary of State, the commercial freedom to strike deals. That is an exceptionally interventionist and draconian...
Mr Iain Sproat: I do not. Retrospective legislation is nearly always bad and would certainly be bad in this case. It is up to the House to decide if it wants to do it—as it certainly could—but I would strongly oppose it. The hon. Member for Newport, East (Mr. Hughes) explained that his amendments Nos. 1 to 5 and the new schedule would enshrine in statute his proposed list of events, which differs in...
Mr Iain Sproat: We oppose unbundling and intend to vote against it. The Government considered the issue of unbundling broadcast sports rights with great care and discussed it with all the relevant interests as part of our consultation earlier this year. The Government recognise the special importance of broadcast coverage of sporting events, but this new clause, even if limited in the way that the hon....
Mr Iain Sproat: I thank the hon. Member for Sunderland, South (Mr. Mullin) for tabling his amendment and giving us the chance to run through these extremely important issues. We know from Question Time before consideration of the Bill, from Second Reading and from Committee how important hon. Members on both sides of the House consider this matter to be. However, I cannot commend new clause 4 to the House....
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Mr Iain Sproat: In Committee on 13 June, when introducing the new clauses that now form clauses 70 to 72 of the Bill relating to the provision of a single channel 3 news provider, I said that the Government were still considering the implications of those new clauses in relation to competition law. New clause 9 and amendment No. 91 are the products of that careful consideration. The provisions of sections...
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. The new clause give effect to my commitment in Committee to table an amendment to safeguard news access to sporting and other events. The new clause provides that any provision in a contract is void in so far as it prevents the use of visual images from another programme for the purposes of news reporting, in circumstances in which the...
Mr Iain Sproat: I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Sir H. Monro) for the tremendous work he did when he was at the Scottish Office to ensure that there was such an increase in Gaelic broadcasting. I am sure that the Gaelic-speaking community will be grateful to him for all he did. I thank the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) for his explanation of his new...
Mr Iain Sproat: No, I cannot give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. That is what I was trying to tell the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland. The Gaelic Television Committee is an extremely important body, both in the grants and advice that it gives and the part it has played in the success of increasing the number of Gaelic programmes in Scotland. Indeed, as my right hon. Friend the Member for...
Mr Iain Sproat: The persons referred to in the subsection are any other persons that the multiplex operator decides should provide services. It could mean Channel 5, or it could be a group that the committee helped to put together. There is no reason why that should not happen, but the committee itself cannot be a broadcaster in the strict and proper sense of the term. Potential applicants for the digital...
Mr Iain Sproat: In tabling the new clause, hon. Members have highlighted concerns about the pension rights of the BBC transmission staff following the privatisation of the BBC's transmission services. Similar amendments were tabled on Third Reading in another place and in Committee. My noble Friend Lord Inglewood agreed to consider the matter further. I, in turn, undertook to introduce an amendment on Report...
Mr Iain Sproat: I am about to discuss accrued surpluses. Does the hon. Gentleman wish to ask about something else?
Mr Iain Sproat: It means the former. We are talking about accrued benefits. If the scheme is a final salary scheme, the employees will get what they would have got if they had retired at the age at which they are moving to the new transmitter service. We discussed accrued surpluses in Committee. If the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy (Dr. Moonie) looks at clause 126, he will see that it says that the Secretary of...
Mr Iain Sproat: I did not know when I began all this that the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston was something of an expert in these matters. Anyway, the BBC meets the rest of the cost. Any surplus or deficit is a BBC responsibility and it therefore remains with the main scheme. I hope that although the hon. Gentleman is clearly unlikely to agree with me, he will understand why we decided that it...
Mr Iain Sproat: I am saying three things. First, any employee who is transferred to the new undertaking will have the option of taking the accrued benefit to the new undertaking. Secondly, the employee will have the option of leaving the accrued benefit in the BBC scheme, knowing that it will be uprated by RPI every year up to a limit of 10 per cent. a year. Thirdly, the employee can transfer the accrued...
