§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what additional measures are being taken to reduce the burden of licensing requirements under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts.
§ Mr. ForthMy Department laid on 10 October 1989 a set of regulations under section 1 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 which will further reduce licensing requirements in line with intentions expressed in the White Paper "Releasing Enterprise" (Cm. 512), published in November 1988.
The regulations will exempt the testing or development of radio devices on certain frequency bands under suppressed radiation conditions. This mainly affects those businesses which carry out the development of new radio devices and those that are involved with the servicing and repair of radio devices.
A requirement of the exemption is that no interference is caused to other authorised wireless telegraphy services by the exempted apparatus.
The regulations will affect over 400 current licensees. They are due to come into force on 1 November 1989.