§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the additional costs to the BBC of setting up a Welsh television channel; how he anticipates this cost will be reflected in the individual licence fee; and if he proposes to introduce legislation to enable him to impose differential licence fees on Wales to cover the additional costs.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe BBC will be required to supply the Welsh fourth channel authority with Welsh language programmes free of charge. The corporation was already planning to increase the number of hours of Welsh language television programming that it provides, and the cost of that increase will be no greater because the programmes are to be shown on the fourth channel. It is unlikely that there will be any significant additional costs to the BBC as a result of the special arrangements for the fourth channel in Wales.
In announcing the present level of the television licence fees last November, I made clear that I had taken into account the need for the BBC to prepare to increase its Welsh language television broadcasts by the autumn of 1982. The costs of Welsh language broadcasting by the BBC will continue to be taken into account in future, as they have been in the past, in assessing the level of the television licence fees. Those fees take account of the BBC's obligations to provide a comprehensive broadcasting system for the whole of the United Kingdom. The answer to the last part of the question is "No."