§ Sir Hector MonroTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why television viewers in south-west Scotland cannot receive the Scottish regional programme broadcast on BBC2; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerIn order to receive television programmes, viewers in south-west Scotland depend upon the broadcasts from the main transmitter at Caldbeck in Cumbria which also services that area of England. When BBC2 offers regional programmes, the Caldbeck transmitter broadcasts the programmes appropriate to north-west England. As a result, viewers in south-west Scotland cannot see the programmes appropriate to their region on occasions and they therefore miss broadcasts of a number of significant programmes including major political, cultural and sporting events. To rectify this problem, the BBC has proposed adding a further channel to the output from Caldbeck as it has already done for BBC1.
We have given this matter very careful consideration. Frequency spectrum is a limited resource. The intensive use of this resource in order to bring four national programme services—soon to become five—to most of this country, means that in some areas, very few channels remain available. Technical studies indicate that, after taking account of the likely needs of Channel 5, only one 376W more channel could be used at Caldbeck. We have a responsibility to ensure that this channel is used effectively in the public interest. Under the BBC proposal, the channel would most of the time broadcast the same programmes viewers already have available on BBC2 North West; Scottish regional programmes would only be broadcast for a few hours each week on average. Nevertheless' we recognise the importance of these programmes for viewers in south-west Scotland and we have therefore decided to allocate channel 67 to the BBC for this purpose. But in view of the consideration already outlined, we have to make two provisos. First, we shall need to keep the position under review. Once the current licensing round for Channel 3 has been finalised the independent television company serving south-west Scotland may be able to offer a wider use of channel 67 bringing significantly more choice to viewers in that area. We shall therefore look at the use which the BBC is making of this channel in 1993. If, at that point, we should decide to reallocate the frequency to Channel 3 it would be expected to compensate the BBC for the investment made in re-engineering the transmitters.
Secondly, the BBC's efforts to introduce the new service should not interfere with its programme of building new transmitters for these communities in other parts of the country who still have no television service at all.