§ Mr. Ovendenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) why his Department decided to advise county council social services departments of the extension of entitlement to concessionary television licences and not to advise district council housing departments;
(2) what action his Department took to ensure that district council housing departments were made aware of the extension of television licence concessions to a number of their tenants;
(3) if he is satisfied that all pensioners eligible to benefit from the extension of television licence concessions will be made aware of the new regulations;
(4) how many applications for old persons' home television licences have been received as a result of the changes in the concessionary arrangements announced on 6th April; how many 366W people are included in these; and how those figures compare with his estimate of the numbers eligible to apply.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe National Television Licence Records Office has so far received 210 applications, involving 5,947 persons, for the old persons' home licence as a result of the change in the arrangements announced on 6th April. It is not possible to estimate how many people will eventually benefit from the change but it is known that many councils are still compiling information for their applications; those received to date represent only a small proportion of the applications that will eventually be made. Information about the change was sent to the directors of social services of all the county councils, metropolitan districts and London boroughs rather than district council housing departments because social services departments have an overall responsibility for the welfare of the elderly in their areas. This should ensure that all pensioners living in accommodation which has become eligible for the concessionary licence as a result of the new arrangements will benefit from it.