§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter of 9 April from the hon. Member for Falmouth and Cambourne, conveying the observations of Mrs. L. Bevington on citizens band radio.
§ Mr. RaisonI have now written to my hon. Friend. I regret the delay in replying.
§ Sir Patrick Wallasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in the light of the delay in the issue of test and development licences to potential manufacturers and importers of citizens band radio equipment, he will speed up the issuing.
§ Mr. RaisonApplications for licences for testing and development and for more general evaluation of citizens band radio equipment are now being processed as quickly as possible.
Mr. Youngasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the extent of representations that he has received from those supporting AM wavebands for citizens band radio; and what consultations he plans to hold with such bodies;
80W(2) pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Bolton, East, on 1 July, Official Report, c. 393, whether he intends to have any further consultations on citizens band radio or whether those are now completed.
§ Mr. RaisonA number of organisations and many individuals have pressed us to introduce a 27 MHz citizens band service using AM. However, we cannot ignore the mounting evidence of the interference caused by illicit citizens band AM transmissions and we remain committed to introducing a 27 MHz FM service in the autumn. We will shortly be taking the advice of the advisory committee established under section 9 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 on the regulations we propose to introduce to control interference from citizens band equipment.