§ Mr. Reidasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what would be the cost of giving pensioners free television licences; and what percentage of the BBC's licence revenue this would represent;
(2) if he will publish a table showing which EEC countries grant free or partly free television licences to pensioners; and what is the cost of the licence in each case.
§ Dr. SummerskillIt is estimated that the cost of providing free television licences to all households containing one or more retirement pensioners would be between £100 million and £110 million in lost revenue in a full year. This represents about one-third of the estimated licence revenue for 1979–80. I regret that information about concessionary television licences for pensioners in other EEC countries is not readily available.