§ 2.51 p.m.
§ Lord AYLESTONEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the total sums collected by the Independent Broadcasting Authority on behalf of the Government, as additional payments (the levy) from the ITV programme companies over the past five years.
§ The PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Belstead)My Lords, the additional payments to the nearest million made by the programme contractors under Section 26(1) of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 1973, as examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, were as follows for the years 1975–76 onwards:
The last figure is unaudited.
£22 million £48 " £62 " £69 " £42 "
§ Lord AYLESTONEMy Lords, in thanking the noble Lord the Minister for his reply may I ask him whether the Government would consider using some of this money for the BBC's overseas radio service, which is perhaps the only voice of Britain in the world?
§ Lord BELSTEADMy Lords, it is not Government policy and indeed so far as I know it has not been Government policy to hypothecate its sources of income. Perhaps I may just add that, as I think the noble Lord knows very well, the basis of the levy has always been that the public should share in the exploitation of a public monopoly, and that is an argument for the proceeds going generally for 1023 the benefit of the public and not being hypothecated—certainly not being hypothecated to the overseas services of the BBC, which of course are funded from a totally separate source.
§ Lord TAYLOR of GRYFEMy Lords, will the noble Lord confirm that the sums he has quoted, plus the tax liability of the independent companies, represent about 80 per cent. of their revenues?
§ Lord BELSTEADYes, my Lords, and that is one of the reasons why my noble friend Lord Cockfield mentioned, in answer to an earlier Question on the Order Paper, that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary and also the Chancellor of the Exchequer are together looking at the system of the payment of the levy.
§ Lord DAVIES of LEEKMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord why he uses the word "hypothecate"? When one hypothecates one pawns in the expectation of gain. I never heard of anybody pawning in the expectation of gain; they have to pay for somebody to take care of something.
§ Lord BELSTEADMy Lords, when I hypothecate I take something and I give it somewhere else and that is precisely what I am telling the noble Lord, Lord Aylestone, we cannot do in this particular case.