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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I want to support what the noble Lord, Lord Low, said so eloquently. I went to a conference a few days ago, part of which was devoted to looking at some of the lessons learnt from the TV digital switchover. By and large, because it was planned properly and had a help scheme, although perhaps not as extensive as some of us would have wanted, it has been a success. Certainly, the Granada switchover, which was one of those highlighted, seems to have gone very smoothly. As we know and as the noble Lord, Lord Low, said, the full amount of the money allocated to that digital switchover was not spent, which was a result of the planning and the successful help scheme. The unsung hero in many respects in all this is the voluntary sector; many of us forget that Help the Aged and Age Concern—I am not sure of the new name, or which way round it goes—have been very instrumental in supplementing the Government’s help scheme. All that is to say that without a properly thought-through help scheme, I do not believe that the audio digital switchover will be successful, and I hope that the Government take that to heart.