HC Deb 19 June 1984 vol 62 c120W
Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the new arrangements he proposes for hotel television licensing will be applicable to hotels using the master slave system under which there is only one television receiving unit, which passes programmes to individual bedroom television sets.

Mr. Hurd

Yes.

Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for each of the following categories of multiple television user, what is (a) the difference in their licensing arrangements as opposed to domestic television licenceholders and (b) the changes he proposes to make: airline and sea terminals, armed forces establishments, clubs and societies, colleges and universities. holiday camps, hospitals (National Health Service), hospitals (private), hotels, industrial buildings, nursing homes (local authority), nursing homes (private), old persons' homes (local authority), old persons' homes (private), prisons and corrective institutions, religious organisations, schools, and television retail shops; and what criteria he uses to determine the allocation of different treatment for different users.

Mr. Hurd

In private dwellings a single television licence permits the licence holder and any member of his family who lives with him as part of his household to install and use television sets in the rooms which the family occupies at the licensed address. Persons who do not form part of the licence holder's household and who install a television set at the licensed address need to be separately licensed.

In the kinds of non-domestic premises referred to the general rule is that a single licence authorises the proprietor to install sets in common and public rooms, but if he installs sets in parts of the premises which are occupied as private accommodation each part is separately licensable. The only significant exceptions to this rule hitherto are hotels and holiday camps where similar liabilities have existed, but where a single licence has been wrongly regarded as covering sets installed by the proprietor in both public rooms and in accommodation provided for the private use of guests. Our proposals to charge some hotels enhanced fees according to the number of private guests' rooms with television, which I set out in my reply to the hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Madden) on 3 May, at column 208, will therefore bring hotels more closely into line with the general licensing policy which will continue to apply to both domestic and non-domestic premises.