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September Sittings

Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the Commission has made of the additional costs arising from the House sitting for a short period in September. [119256]

Sir Archy Kirkwood: The overall cost of running the House administration (excluding capital works etc.) in 2002–03 was some £133 million, giving an average daily cost of the order of £365,000. The difference in cost between a sitting day and a non-sitting day is negligible: the major costs of accommodation and staffing are not affected appreciably by the change to September sittings. These figures do not include the cost of paying Members' salaries or allowances, which are not normally regarded as part of the cost of running the House itself.

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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Analogue Switch-off

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of public awareness of analogue switch-off; and what percentage of the UK population she estimates are aware of the proposed deadline for switch-off. [119651]

Estelle Morris: No formal assessment has been made. Research commissioned from MORI by DCMS in spring 2002 into consumer attitudes to digital television found that 56 per cent. of people were aware of analogue switch off between 2006 and 2010, which compared with 44 per cent. in 2001. No figures are available for 2003.

HMS Vengeance

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) if she will place HMS Vengeance on the Historic Ships List; [120057]

(2) if she will make a statement on the criteria for eligibility to place a ship on the Historic Ships List; and what powers she has to make exceptions to these rules. [120058]

Estelle Morris: The Government welcomes the efforts of those involved in the preservation of the country's maritime heritage. However, decisions on which ships should be included in the Core Collection and Designated Vessels lists, and the specific and well established criteria which inform those decisions, are a matter for the National Historic Ships Committee (NHSC) and not for Government. These lists and criteria are reviewed regularly by the NHSC.

Digital Broadcasting

Mr. Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the percentage of residents in (a) north west England, (b) Cumbria and (c) South Lakeland who are able to receive digital audio broadcasting on terrestrial transmitters. [119254]

Estelle Morris: This Department does not hold these figures. They are held separately by the BBC and Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB). According to the BBC and DRDB:

BBC

(a) North west England: approximately 75 per cent. of the population is currently reached, (expected to rise by end of 2004 to about 85 per cent.);

(b) Cumbria: no coverage at present;

(c) South Lakeland: no coverage at present, (but expected to reach half the population by the end of 2004).

Commercial Radio

(a) North west England: approximately 75 per cent. of the population is currently reached;

(b) Cumbria: approximately 33 per cent. of the population is currently reached;

(c) South Lakeland: There is limited coverage, but detailed information on population coverage is not available.

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John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the level of take-up of digital television services has been from 1998 to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by region. [119648]

Estelle Morris: This information is not available currently. Subscriber figures for the take up of digital television services are not available on a regional basis, as the data is commercially sensitive and therefore confidential to the pay television companies. However the Office for National Statistics hope to be able to produce figures on the level of take up of all digital television services on a regional basis in the future.

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John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many and what percentage of (a) people and (b) households in the United Kingdom (i) receive and (ii) can receive digital television by (A) digital terrestrial, (B) digital satellite, (C) digital cable and (D) other means, broken down by region. [119649]

Estelle Morris: The information is not available in the form requested. The coverage information available from the Independent Television Commission is calculated using the 24 million UK households.

For the first quarter of 2003 the estimated UK figures are:

Digital television receiving platform	Possible viewing households	Actual viewing households
digital terrestrial television (figures based on core coverage from main six digital multiplexes)	17.5 million (73 per cent.)	1.4 million (5.7 per cent.)
digital satellite (figures do not take into account planning restrictions or restrictive covenants)	23.5 million (98 per cent.)	7.36 million of which:
6.7 million (subscribers) (27.2 per cent.)
660,000 (free to view only) (2.7 percent.)
digital cable	6 million (25 per cent.)	2.1 million (8.5 per cent.)
DSL	Not known	(0.05 per cent.)

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the Digital Action Plan, what her definition of digital television being affordable is; and what criteria she used to come to this definition. [119650]

Estelle Morris: We have said that switching to digital television must be an affordable option for the vast majority of people; and as a target indicator of affordability, 95 per cent. of consumers must have access to digital equipment. One of the key tasks for Government in the Digital Action Plan is to conduct a comprehensive review of progress towards digital switchover, with particular reference to the accessibility, availability and affordability tests announced in September 1999. I have asked the Digital Television Consumer Expert Group announced on 17 June to help the Government with this.

Television Licences

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether recent changes to the concessionary TV licence fee regulations will require people who are over 65, who previously had concessionary TV licences and who work part-time, to pay full rates; and if she will make a statement. [119381]

Estelle Morris: The recent changes to the Accommodation for Residential Care (ARC) concessionary television licence scheme, to introduce preserved rights to the concession for existing beneficiaries, have not altered the categories of resident eligible for the concession. These are disabled persons, mentally disordered persons and retired persons aged 60 years or more. The BBC has statutory responsibility for the administration of the television licensing system, including responsibility for determining entitlement to the ARC concession in individual cases. However, I understand that residents aged 60 years or more who are either not in paid employment, are in paid employment but work no more than 15 hours per week, or are in paid employment but do not work in their lifetime career, are considered to fall within the category of retired persons aged 60 years or more.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether sheltered housing schemes which bought TV licences at full cost before 1 April will have the fees reimbursed to take account of recent changes in regulations; and if she will make a statement. [119382]

Estelle Morris: The BBC has statutory responsibility for the administration of the television licensing system. This includes responsibility for determining refund policy. However, I understand that, in cases where residents in sheltered housing have obtained full fee licences but have since become entitled to preserved rights to the Accommodation for Residential Care concession, the BBC's policy is to offer refunds for full, unexpired calendar months from 1 April this year, when the amending regulations came into effect.

TREASURY

Access for Disabled People

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what actions he has taken or is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [117357]

John Healey: The Chancellor's departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies are working together to ensure that both their current and future websites are accessible to the blind and partially sighted.

The Inland Revenue's site has been won the RNIB's accessible website award, HM Customs and Excise are current redesigning their site to conform with the RNIB's 'See it Right' standard and HM Treasury's site has been designed to meet the world wide web

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consortium's web accessibility (W3C WAI) guidelines and was recently recognised by a National Audit Office report as one of the most accessible in government.

The National Savings and Investment website has been built to meet the W3C WAI guidelines and the Valuation Office (VOA) is working to be fully compliant with the Office of the E-envoy guidelines.

The Debt Management Office's website is currently being re-designed. Accessibility to the website is a priority and the DMO will be following the RNIB Accessibility Best Practice guidelines in taking forward this work. National Statistics currently meets all but one of the priority W3C WAI objectives and will be seeking to address areas of non-compliance when it redevelops its website, subject to specific data visualisation and presentation issues. The Royal Mint's current site is programmed to meet W3C WAI objectives and accessibility will be central to the forthcoming redevelopment of the site. The main websites of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and OGC

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buying solutions have been built in line with the Office of E-envoy guidance and while some older sites are not yet fully compliant, a website accessibility champion at OGCbuying.solutions, and a team including an expert on the application of the relevant standards for web design at OGC, will be responsible for ensuring the accessibility of all sites to partially sited or blind people.

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