§ Mr. Galeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, when considering award of franchises for cable television, he will avoid any priority to those 435W companies operating existing but archaic systems; if he will ensure that franchises are granted only to companies or consortia willing to invest immediately in fully interactive systems; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdI refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. Dykes) on 25 November.-[Vol. 49, c.326.] When inviting applications for cable pilot project licences we said that priority would be given to those proposals which offered the most positive contribution to the application of advanced technology and which provided the capacity for interactive services. Our decisions on the 37 applications submitted to us have been taken having full regard to those criteria.