HC Deb 08 November 1988 vol 140 cc273-4

The Lords have agreed to the amendment made by the Commons:

In page 26, line 1, leave out subsection (1) and insert— '(1) A designated body may, for the purpose of providing people who are deaf or hard of hearing with copies which are sub-titled or othewise modified for their special needs, makes copies of television broadcasts or cable programmes and issue copies to the public, without infringing any copyright in the broadcasts or cable programmes or works included in them.'.

with the following amendment:

No. 2, in line 3, after 'hearing', insert— ', or physically or mentally handicapped in other ways,'.

Mr. Forth

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Madam Deputy Speaker

With this we will consider Lords amendment No. 14, to the Commons amendment to schedule 2.

Mr. Forth

These amendments tabled by Lord Williams and accepted by the Government, extend to other physically and mentally handicapped people the benefit of the exceptions in clause 70 and paragraph 17 of schedule 2, which allow subtitling of recordings of broadcasts for deaf people. This is an important measure, and we hope that the House will give its approval.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

It is a little churlish for the Minister to introduce the amendment in that fashion. He might have commemorated the great Labour triumph in the House of Lords in forcing the Government to accept this obvious and sensible concession by widening the clause to all physically and mentally handicapped people. It would have been ludicrous if videos for autistic children had not been included.

It is interesting to note that the Government did not include that in the first place, but had to be forced to include it by our amendment in the House of Lords. There was no vote on the issue because the Government knew that they would be beaten in a place where, at least until today, bleeding hearts had some strength. The physically and mentally handicapped are well represented in the other place. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh!"] I support the amendment and pay tribute to Lord Williams of Elvel and to the Opposition in the House of Lords, who tabled the amendment in the first place.

Question put and agreed to.

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