§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Lord President of the Council what progress has been made on the proposal that a live relay of the proceedings of the House be made available to telephone subscribers as part of British Telecom's range of specialist call services.
§ Mr. WakehamA proposal from BT Citicall for a live telephone relay of the 1988 Budget speech lapsed, as the House had not nominated the Select Committee on Sound Broadcasting, to which it would have fallen to consider this application for the use of the sound feed. On 26 May this year the House agreed that the relevant responsibilities of that Committee should be transferred to the Select Committee on Televising of Proceedings of the House. I understand that BT is now considering the submission of a fresh application once legal and regulatory problems have been resolved. Any such application would raise important questions of principle about the way in which the sound feed is used, which the Committee would have to examine very carefully along with other proposals of a similar type which have been submitted. In addition, as was recognised by the Select Committee on Sound Broadcasting in its first report of Session 1986–87 (HC 281), the approval of the House as a whole would be required before a service of the kind suggested could proceed.