Oral Answers to Questions — Culture, Media and Sport – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 January 2001.
Ben Bradshaw
Labour, Exeter
12:00,
22 January 2001
How many families in Exeter will benefit from the introduction of free television licences for households with a member aged 75 years or over. [144787]
Mr Chris Smith
Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
TV Licensing, which administers this concession for the BBC as licensing authority, is not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, I can tell my hon. Friend that estimates of the over-75 population based on the 1991 census indicate that there were approximately 7,900 people aged 75 or over in the Exeter Constituency.
Ben Bradshaw
Labour, Exeter
Is my right hon. Friend aware that a pensioner in Exeter told me at the weekend that he would vote Labour for the first time ever because this is the first Government who have done anything for him? Bearing that and the Tories' pledge to scrap free TV licences in mind, has he thought of extending that popular measure to all pensioners?
Mr Chris Smith
Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I am delighted to hear what my hon. Friend has to say about his constituent. We wanted to focus the initial help on that section of the pensioner population because its members not only often have the least means, but depend more on television viewing than any others because of poor mobility. That was why we introduced the concession in the way that we did. I shall of course draw my hon. Friend's remarks to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and those are matters that we shall want to discuss further, but, in the process, we should remind the voters that the Tories have pledged to scrap that free licence.
Julian Lewis
Conservative, New Forest East
Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the hon. Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw) on finding a 75-year-old in his Constituency who is so impressed by the measure? Does he agree that the hon. Gentleman is more likely to find many more 65-year-olds who are distinctly underwhelmed by the 75p rise in the basic pension that they received? Is not the real reason why the Government are so keen to give out free television licences that they want to maximise the number of people who will be exposed to the BBC's propaganda, orchestrated by the Government cronies who they have put at the head of the corporation?
Mr Chris Smith
Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I trust that the 65-year-olds to whom the hon. Gentleman refers will note that their pensions will rise by £5 this April.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
