§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will now make a statement on the future of the BBC charter.
§ Mr. BrookeI plan to publish a White Paper very shortly.
§ Mr. LlwydTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage (1) if he will publish for each county in Wales, for each local authority in Wales and for Wales as a whole the numbers of people(a) able to claim concessions to their television licence fee and (b) currently claiming such concessions to their television licence in respect of being registered blind or partially sighted;
(2) what was the level of television licence fee for colour television users in each of the past 10 years; and what was the level of television licence fee concession paid to blind or partially blind people in the past 10 years.
§ Mr. Brooke[holding answer 27 June 1994]: From March 1985 to March 1988 the colour television licence fee was £58. Since then, the fee has been increased annually each April as follows:
Year £ 1988 62.50 1989 66.00 1990 71.00 1991 77.00 1992 80.00 1993 83.00 1994 84.50 The reduction in the television licence fee for registered blind people has remained at £1.25 since separate radio licences were abolished in 1971.
I understand that the number of registered blind people in Wales at March 1993 was 9,595. It is not known how many of these own a television set. The number of people in Wales claiming the reduction for registered blind people is not available as records are not held in this form. Registered partially sighted people are not entitled to a reduction on their television licence fee on account of being partially sighted.