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Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill

moved Amendment No. 27: 27: After Clause 5 , insert the following new Clause— ““Annual report The Secretary of State shall annually lay before Parliament a report on the progress of the disclosure of information in connection with any digital switchover help scheme.”” The noble Lord said: I am rather reluctant to introduce this amendment because it might take away the Minister’s profit. The amendment would place a duty on the Secretary of State to report annually to Parliament on the progress of the disclosure of information under the digital switchover help scheme. This is especially relevant if the amendments to introduce overseeing the operation by the National Audit Office are rejected. Despite the fact that the Bill introduces a new office to deter malpractice among those who have access to the information, there is no system of accountability for the help scheme as a whole, despite the cost of the scheme being estimated at £600 million. Owing to the narrow scope of the Bill, it proved impossible to table an amendment requesting a yearly report on the whole digital switchover scheme. The amendment is therefore a probing one; it cannot go as far as I would like, but I hope that it will provide the Minister with some food for thought, so that he will come back with a proposal at Report on some method of ensuring greater accountability of how the help scheme works, either by this method or by use of the NAO. I beg to move.