§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council when the Parliamentary Works Office study on supplying the live television feed to hon. Members' offices is expected to report; and whether hon. Members are permitted to make their own arrangements to receive the feed, at their own expense, in the interval.
§ Mr. MacGregorA preliminary examination of the technical feasibility of providing both data and video links to Members' offices is currently being undertaken by the House authorities. It is hoped that its conclusions will be submitted to the appropriate domestic Committee in the near future. If a decision were taken to proceed further with the project, the next step would be a detailed physical survey of the House and its outbuildings by the Parliamentary Works Office, or its successor organisation under the Ibbs reforms. It is too early to speculate on the timing of any such further study. In the meantime, it would not be appropriate for individual right hon. or hon. Members to seek to pre-empt the conclusions of those studies and their consideration by the relevant domestic Committees by making their own separate arrangements, whether or not at their own expense.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council if hon. Members are permitted to receive the United Artists local cable services live television feed from the Chamber(a) at their homes and (b) in their Commons office.
§ Mr. MacGregorOn the first part of the hon. Member's question, what cable services right hon. and hon. Members choose to subscribe to at their own homes is entirely a matter for them. Access to a dedicated parliamentary channel, however delivered, in Members' offices in the House or its outbuildings would be no different, for practical purposes, from the provision of a clean feed direct from the Chamber, so the approval of both the Broadcasting Committee and the relevant post-Ibbs domestic Committee would be necessary.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council if there is a live television feed from the Chamber to his Office(a) in the House and (b) in his departmental offices in Whitehall.
§ Mr. MacGregorI do not have a live television feed in my House of Commons office, but my Whitehall office is connected by spur to the Prime Minister's television feed.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council when and from whom Mr. Speaker received permission to receive the clean television feed from the Chamber.
§ Mr. MacGregorThis facility was originally approved by the then Select Committee on the Televising of Proceedings of the House as part of the arrangements for the experiment in televising the House's proceedings, which began in November 1989.
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§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council if he will list those Government Departments which have arranged through the Central Office of Information to take the clean television feed from the Chamber; how many television sets can receive the pictures in each department; and where in each department each of the sets is located.
§ Mr. MacGregorA clean television feed from the House of Commons is supplied by the Central Office of Information to the following Departments:
- Department of Employment
- Department of Energy
- Department of the Environment
- Department of Health
- Prime Minister's Office
- Scottish Office
- Department of Trade and Industry
- Department of Transport
- Her Majesty's Treasury
- Welsh Office
The number and location of television sets is a matter for Ministers in the Departments listed.