INDEPENDENT BROADCASTING AUTHORITY BILL (Hansard, 2 April 1979)

§ Lord BOSTON of FAVERSHAM

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The Bill before your Lordships has but one purpose: to enable the Independent Broadcasting Authority to incur expenditure in equipping themselves to transmit the fourth channel television service. It will enable the Authority to apply any of the current surpluses on their appropriate reserves up to a total of £10 million. It will also enable the Authority to borrow from the Government, if it should need to do so, up to a total of £18 million.

Your Lordships may recall that in the White Paper on Broadcasting the Government indicated their agreement with the Annan Committee that, in order to keep the cost to a minimum and to avoid unnecessary delay, the IBA should be responsible for engineering the fourth channel and for transmitting the fourth channel service. The Authority came to the conclusion that, unfortunately, it had inadequate statutory powers to do so under existing legislation, and this Bill now makes the necessary statutory provision.

I should like to make it clear to your Lordships that the purpose of the Bill is quite independent of the service ultimately to be transmitted over the fourth television channel. Whatever authority eventually provides and supervises the television service on the fourth channel, the preliminary engineering work does need to be done. It is essential that the work should start as soon as possible. I would remind your Lordships, too, that the 1768 White Paper on Broadcasting stated the Government's intention to establish an Open Broadcasting Authority to provide the service on the fourth channel. The establishment of that Authority will be dealt with in major broadcasting legislation.

This Bill does not anticipate that legislation and, indeed, if any other arrangements should be made for the provision of the service, the engineering work which flows from this Bill will be equally appropriate. The estimated total cost of engineering the fourth channel throughout the United Kingdom to cover approximately 99 per cent. of the population will be about £28 million, and this Bill provides for this full cost to be met. The IBA must, of course, be satisfied that it can recover the money it has expended, and interest and depreciation. Adequate assurances to cover these eventualities were given to the Authority during the debate on the Bill in another place.

It may be for your Lordships' convenience if I explain very briefly the contents of the Bill. Clause 1 is mainly concerned with enabling the Authority to incur expenditure on the engineering work. It ensures that the continuing programme it will embark on will not be inhibited by the fact that under present legislation the functions of the Authority cease on 31st December 1981. And, of course, their functions will be extended in due course.

Clause 2 deals with the method of financing the proposed expenditure from the surpluses on the Authority's own reserves up to £10 million and by borrowing from the Government up to £18 million. It also deals with the repayment by the Authority of borrowed money and the payment of interest. Clause 3 deals with the application of the Bill to Northern Ireland and enables it to be applied to the Isle of Man and any of the Channel Islands. In conclusion, I would commend this, in our view, essential Bill to your Lordships' House and beg to move that it be now read a second time.

§ Lord REDESDALE

My Lords, I am most grateful for that clear explanation of the Bill. It is slightly shorter and simpler than the Credit Unions Bill, and it sets out how something is to be done.

1769 The Bill begs many questions. The noble Lord said that the White Paper states what are the Government's intentions, but quite what will happen at the end of the day is another matter. The Bill opens up a large number of options, but we welcome it and wish it a speedy passage. However, I should like to point out that the money which will be used has to come from all the contractors, although it will be culled by the IBA, if that is the correct phrase to use. To a degree, therefore, the contractors will have some interest in what happens.

We shall have to see how we go on from here. The Bill provides a framework for setting up a fourth channel, and £28 million is quite a lot of money, but it is, presumably, necessary. Therefore, we welcome the Bill.