PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE CONSIDERA TION OF COMPLAINTS (Hansard, 24 June 1980)

§ Mr. Brittan
I beg to move amendment No. 66, in page 11, line 14, leave out from 'to' to 'a' in line 15 and insert 'consider'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 67 to 73.

§ Mr. Brittan
The effect of these amendments will be to make express provision for the commission, if it thinks fit in any particular case, to interview the parties to a complaint separately and to pay them expenses incurred in attending such an interview. We think that it is desirable that the commission should have power, if it thinks fit, to interview separately one or more of the bodies mentioned in clause 11(2) either instead of or in addition to holding a hearing. That is obviously a requirement that makes sense in relation to the Bill as a whole.
Clause 11 (5) is amended so as to lay a duty on the relevant broadcasting body to comply with a request from the commission to send a representative to attend upon it when it proposes to consider a complaint. The amended wording will cover attendance at a hearing or at a separate interview.
Subsections (6) and (7)(e) are amended so as to make it the duty of the broadcasting body that broadcasts a programme about which complaint is made to take such steps as it reasonably can to ensure that any other person responsible for making or providing a programme complies with a request from the commission for his attendance. Again, the amended wording will extend to attendance for the purpose of a hearing or a separate interview.
417 Subsection (9) is amended so as to empower the commission, at its discretion, to pay travelling and subsistence allowances to any person who attends it in connection with a complaint that is, for the purpose of a hearing or a separate interview.

§ Mr. D. E. Thomas
I beg to move amendment No. 103, in page 12, line 17 at end insert— '(10) In respect of complaints made in a language spoken in the United Kingdom other than English, or complaints arising out of a programme transmitted in a language other than English, the commission shall consider such complaints in that language or provide at its expense for written or verbal simultaneous translation from that language into English.'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to take amendment No. 104, in clause 14, page 12, line 35, at end insert— 'in English and other United Kingdom languages in which radio and television programmes are broadcast.'.

§ Mr. Thomas
The purpose of these two amendments is to assert that if television and broadcasting are a cultural medium, in a multilingual State they are also a multi-cultural medium. Complaints 418 made about programmes should be dealt with in the language in which those programmes were broadcast. Amendment No. 104 refers to the publication of a report of the findings of the Complaints Commission in English and other United Kingdom languages in which radio and television programmes are broadcast. The intention of the two amendments is to make the work of the commission effective not only for anglophones, or English speakers, but for the substantial proportion—the many millions—in the United Kingdom who speak, as their home language, languages other than English. I cite the recent ILEA survey, which indicated that out of a sample of 4,000 sixth-form pupils there were as many as 55 separate home languages. At the moment, television programmes are not broadcast in all those languages, but they are in a significant number.
We hope that as the fourth channel develops—and if it provides diversity for minorities, including linguistic minorities—provision in languages other than English in the West Midlands, Wales and the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, will be extended. We also hope that the commission will take note of that and function in a way that will ensure that a West Indian or Asian complainant can take his complaint about a broadcast item in that language to the commission and receive a fair hearing. That is the intention of these amendments. They are an attempt to ensure that linguistic justice is seen to be done in the United Kingdom.
In the past we have been very anglophone—very anglocentric, one might say. The intention of these amendments is to try to put that right.

§ Mr. Wyn Roberts
My advice is that amendment No. 103 is unnecessary, in the sense that it is unnecessary to lay a specific obligation on the commission to achieve this effect. Although the commission is not intended to operate as a court of law, it will be expected to have full regard to the laws of natural justice in carrying out its functions. These would require the commission to make any special arrangements necessary, such as translation facilities, to ensure that a complainant is enabled to present his case to them. For that reason we think that the amendment is unnecessary. We 419 believe that the commission may be relied upon to ensure that a complainant does not fail to have his complaint considered because, let us say, he is a Welsh speaker, or for any similar reason.
Referring to amendment No. 104, the Government appreciate the reasons that prompted it. The commission's jurisdiction will extend to complaints made by people living in all parts of the United Kingdom. Its annual report will be of general public interest. Having recognised that, however, we are not persuaded of the justification for producing the annual report in languages other than English. The expression: In English and other United Kingdom languages would include Gaelic as well as Welsh.
Where the commission adjudicates upon an individual complaint made in Welsh, or about a programme broadcast in Welsh, it would be open to the commission, under clause 12, to require the adjudication to be published in that language. Under subsection (3), which is the subject of a Government amendment, the periodic summaries that the commission is to be required to publish of every complaint could reasonably be published in Welsh as well as in English in appropriate cases.