Mr. Geraint Morganasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what estimated loss to Post Office revenue would result from the exemption from television licence charges of all television receiving sets privately owned by chronically sick persons who are permanently resident in hospitals and institutions in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. ChatawayI understand from my my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Social Services that the number of chronically sick persons permanently in residential institutional accommodation and hospitals is unknown, as is the number of these people with privately-owned television sets. In my reply to the hon. Member for 239W Newcastle-upon-Tyne, West (Mr. Bob Brown) on 23rd November, I explained that the Government's policy is not to grant licence concessions to any particular groups of people but to give people in need, from whatever cause, adequate cash benefits which they can spend as they choose.—[Vol. 807, c. 27.]