§ Sir R. Russellasked the Minister of Public Building and Works if he will state the name of the manufacturers of the small television sets which have been installed as annunciators in a number of rooms in the Palace of Westminster; and why they frequently fail to work properly.
§ Mr. R. J. MellishThe sets have been supplied by Rediffusion Industrial Services Ltd. to the specification laid down by my Department. The discussions with the firm to which I referred in my reply to the hon. Member on 3rd February, 1969—[Vol. 777, c. 57–2]—were held on 17th February. It emerged that the poor performance of the sets was due to faulty components both in the sets and in the transmission apparatus. I am satisfied that the firm has been and still is taking energetic steps to rectify these faults and, in fact, there has been a marked fall in the failure rate over the last few weeks. While occasional failures are to be expected with this kind of electronic equipment, the firm is confident that they will shortly be able to maintain a high standard of service.