§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Lord President of the Council if he will make a statement on securing direct television feeds to hon. Members' offices from the Chamber.
§ Mr. NewtonUntil recently the only Members authorised by the Broadcasting Committee to receive a clean television feed from the Chamber in their offices within the House were the Speaker and the Chairman of Ways and Means. However, at its meeting on 19 July, the Committee agreed that for the purposes of facilitating the management of the business of the House, the following additional Members' offices should be supplied with a clean television feed: the Prime Minister; the Leader of the Opposition; the Leader of the House; the Shadow Leader of the House; the Leader of the Liberal Democrats; and the Whips Offices of the Government, the Official Opposition and the Liberal Democrats. The installation of the necessary cabling and television sets was carried out during the summer recess.
So far as individual hon. and right hon. Members are concerned, the hon. Gentleman will be aware from previous answers on this subject that the Committee has approved in principle the supply of a feed to all Members' offices, provided that the service is available to all parts of the Parliamentary estate simultaneously. The Committee has also accepted, however, that because of the complexity and cost of the cabling work involved in such an undertaking, further progress must await decisions on the broader question of the provision of a parliamentary data and video network to Members' offices. Proposals on this 406W subject, which are currently under consideration by the Information Committee, are not expected to come before the House until the beginning of 1994 at the earliest.