Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 22, in page 114, line 30, at end insert— '(8) Any reference in this Schedule to a person who is over a particular age is a reference to a person who has attained that age.'. The amendment puts beyond any doubt the fact that any reference in schedule 2 to a person who is over a particular age means that a person has attained that age. If that formulation still...
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 8, in page 116, line 13, leave out from "Act)" to end of line 15 and insert— '(i) a licence to provide digital programme services, or(j) a licence to provide national or local digital sound programme services.'
Mr Iain Sproat: Amendment No. 8 honours the commitment given to my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) in Committee to disapply the nationality restrictions in part II of schedule 2 to the 1990 Act in respect of the ownership of digital programme service licences.
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 92, in page 116, line 24, after 'BBC company' insert ', a Channel 4 company'.
Mr Iain Sproat: The amendments fulfil our commitment to allow Channel 4 to create or participate in companies involved in broadcasting activities. This will allow Channel 4, like S4C and the BBC, to take full advantage of the opportunities of digital broadcasting. We are allowing Channel 4 to establish or participate in companies anywhere in the world, provided that they are involved in activities that...
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 23, in page 116, line 41, leave out 'paragraphs 9 and 17' and insert `paragraph 9'.
Mr Iain Sproat: The amendments arise as a result of the new regime for limiting participation, short of control, in broadcasting licences. As a result of these changes, paragraphs 16 to 21 of part III to schedule 2 are largely redundant, and are therefore deleted by amendment No. 42. The holder of a licence to provide a national channel 3 or Channel 5 service is currently limited to a maximum interest of 20...
Mr Iain Sproat: The amendments would introduce special arrangements for Wales in the review of prospects for analogue switch-off, but that is unnecessary. The review that we propose—as set out clearly in clause 29—encompasses the whole of the United Kingdom. The key factor in determining a timetable for analogue switch-off will be the availability, in digital form, of the public service channel to all...
Mr Iain Sproat: I should like to tell the hon. Member for Ashfield (Mr. Hoon) that I quite agree that it is undesirable that, late in the Committee stage, we should make a series of proposals and then decide to drop them. What happened—there is no criticism of anyone in this—is that, in the middle of the Committee stage, we received from the ITC proposals that we should act on teletext, as I described to...
Mr Iain Sproat: These amendments would, in effect, lead to new competitions for the licences whenever any change in control was proposed. The present arrangements allow the regulators to look carefully at any proposed transfer, so that they can satisfy themselves that there is no transgression of the rules on media ownership, and that the person to whom the licence is to be transferred is not disqualified...
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 181, in page 10, line 34, leave out 'financial penalty' and insert `specified financial penalty not exceeding whichever is the greater'.
Mr Iain Sproat: These amendments fulfil a commitment made in Committee. Amendment No. 181 allows the ITC discretion to levy a fine of less than £50,000 or the specified percentage of qualifying revenue, whichever is the greater, when it revokes a multiplex licence because the multiplex provider has failed to begin providing the service. Amendments Nos. 204 to 206 make the same arrangements with regard to...
Mr Iain Sproat: The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) has made so many valuable contributions to our debates in Committee that I should like to have helped him, but I cannot give him too much comfort on this matter. I shall give him a little, however. S4C has been allocated half the third multiplex in Wales. That multiplex will also carry Channel 5. Half the multiplex in the rest of...
Mr Iain Sproat: Although S4C would not have a veto, it will be absolutely incumbent on the multiplex operator to provide S4C with what S4C needs to fulfil its statutory requirements. To make certain of that, I shall get my Department to make an order to that effect, so that S4C will not have a multiplex operator that does not take its needs fully and properly into account. We intend that S4C should have...
Mr Iain Sproat: The Government believe that the sooner they can get it off the ground, the better. It is up to them. There will certainly be nothing that says that multiplex 1 with the BBC or multiplex 2 with channels 3 and 4 should have priority. If the third multiplex can get its act together, there is no reason why it should be behind the others.
Mr Iain Sproat: My right hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Needham) and my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel (Sir M. Marshall) know that I am extremely sympathetic to their concerns. The example of "Beyond Reason", which they cited, was especially shocking, in that the Independent Television Commission had already taken steps to deal with the problem, but the revisions to its code, especially...
Mr Iain Sproat: I turn first to the speech by the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks). I understand his concerns about the potential exploitation of children in advertising and I know that the Safeway case that he cited disgusted many people. Both the Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Council received several complaints that the advertisement portrayed children in an...
Mr Iain Sproat: The whole House will be grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor) for bringing this important and topical matter to our attention. I have great sympathy with what he has said and with his intentions, and I have taken careful note of the points that he has made. I understand, and to a great extent share, the concerns that he and other hon. Members have...
Mr Iain Sproat: Section 105 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 lays down four criteria that the Radio Authority must take into account in determining to whom a local licence should be awarded. They are: the ability of the applicant to maintain the service throughout the period of the licence; the extent to which the proposed service would cater for the tastes and interests of people in the area receiving the...
Mr Iain Sproat: I beg to move amendment No. 173, in page 2, line 5, after 'programmes' insert '(together with any ancillary services, as defined by section 22(2))'.
