New Clause 2
Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill
4:45 pm
Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
Despite the limited scope of the Bill and the limited time that we have devoted to its discussion, we have had a wide-ranging debate. We have ranged from the use of large print to the role of aerial erection companies, from the WEEE directive to the European convention on human rights, and from the dictatorship of Julius Caesar to the Secretary of State’s apparently benign approach to democratic institutions.
We have seen the Minister promoted on three occasions. He was promoted to Secretary of State by my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield; he was then promoted to being a judge by you, Mr. Conway; and latterly in our deliberations he was raised even higher, to consular status. We have seen some of the legal skills of the hon. Member for Wantage, as a result of which some of us fear for the good burghers of Hammersmith, to whom he will be speaking this evening.
We have seen the Minister playing a fairly straight bat, refusing, sadly, to give us further information about the details of the targeted help scheme. She assured us, however, that the information is to appear at some time in the relatively near future. Apparently, I am not to say when I think that that may be—possibly later this week.
In all those deliberations, we have genuinely been assisted by the Minister’s approach. He was helpful on many of the amendments and on many of the points that were made, for which we are grateful. I am sure that a number of the Committee members who have benefited from the assistance of the officials in his Department would wish to pass on, through him, our thanks. We certainly give our thanks to the Committee Clerk who has done sterling work and who was particularly helpful to me and the hon. Member for Wantage. We would like to apologise to her through you, Mr. Conway, for not necessarily having done full justice to the efforts that she has made on our behalf.
Finally, may I thank you, Mr. Conway, as others have, for the way in which you have chaired our brief deliberations on this important Bill? Notwithstanding the last few minutes, you have ensured that we have been remarkably good humoured and therefore, I believe, genuinely productive.