§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what recent discussions he has had with the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations about the allocation of a freely radiating FM frequency for use by hospital radios; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will publish the findings of the hospital radio trial at Radio Redhill to evaluate the possibility of a freely radiating FM frequency for hospital radio use;
(3) if he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's proposals to allow hospital radios future access to freely radiating FM frequencies to provide radio services to individual hospitals.
§ Mr. Leigh[holding answer 8 February 1993]: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer that I gave on 2 November 1992, Official Report, columns 60–61. I hope to be able to see the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations in the near future to discuss my Department"s involvement in the work of the Radio Authority to evaluate the technical feasibility of hospital radio.
The Redhill experiment showed that although it may be technically feasible to deliver an effective freely radiating FM service within a particular hospital, depending on the nature of the site to be served, signal overspill beyond the site could be significant.
The Radio Authority has the responsibility to determine the priority to give to hospital radio among other possible uses of the radio frequencies available for independent sound broadcasting.