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Mark Williams:
Does the Minister also appreciate that, as the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams) mentioned, language is an important barrier
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that needs to be overcome as well? The Welsh language therefore needs to be heavily borne in mind in any support that can be given to those groups.
James Purnell: That is an important point and the hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that Digital UK is already well seized of it. I believe that it is developing a Welsh language scheme. It is certainly committed to providing bilingual advertising material and services, and that will apply to its phone lines as well as to its other services. Thus we are ensuring from the start that we are building bilingual services into the plans for Wales. If there are any issues where he or his colleagues feel that that is not being done sufficiently, we would obviously be happy to look into the matter.
Assistance through the targeted help scheme is focused on people who will have technical issues in making the switch to digital, and that is why we focused on people over 75 and people with severe disabilities. We are still researching the precise way in which that scheme will work. We have a trial in Bolton that is looking at the technical and logistical issues around giving people advice, making home visits, and a range of such issues that we need to resolve before we can make a robust estimate of the costs. We will be publishing those next year once we have a proper understanding of the matter. It would be inappropriate to make a forecast without enough data on which to base it.
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The hon. Gentleman also referred to people who live in rural communities, and Digital UK will look at the role that local communities can play in reaching those people. We do not believe that it would be appropriate to make them a category in their own right, because we believe that a strong proportion of those people will be able to make the switch without any extra help. However, we are clear that we will not be turning anybody away. The basic level of services that Digital UK will be offering will be available to people whether they are in those two vulnerable groups or not.
Digital switchover is an extremely important policy for the future of UK television. British television is among the best in the world and that has been achieved because we have always been at the forefront of technology, whether it was the creation of the BBC, the pioneering of commercial television through ITV, the invention of Channel 4, or, more recently, satellite and cable television, or the development of mobile telephony. Our media industries have succeeded partly because instead of following technology we have decided to lead from the front and ensure that we were the first to develop new services. We believe that that will be good for consumers, for industry and for Britain, and we look forward to working with hon. Members on both sides of the House on that important project.
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