DEPARTMENT FOR
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT News Release (071\2007) issued by The
Government News Network on 18 June 2007
The Digital
Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill - which allows social
security information to be disclosed to the BBC to help target
those who will benefit from the Digital Switchover Help Scheme -
received Royal Assent earlier today.
The Act will allow the Department for Work and Pensions to
disclose limited information about over-75-year-olds and people in
receipt of disability benefits with the BBC, to allow targeted
assistance with the switch to digital television.
Broadcasting Minister Shaun Woodward said:
"This is a significant milestone towards the switch to
digital television for all. The measures in the Act will make it
easier for vulnerable people to get help with switchover. They
won't have to go through a lengthy claims process to get
help, but at the same time their right to privacy is safeguarded."
The Government wants all households to benefit from digital TV.
Key to this is ensuring that everyone has a choice of digital TV
options that they can afford. This can only be achieved through a
universal switchover from analogue to digital signals. The process
of digital switchover will take place by ITV region between 2008
and 2012, with Whitehaven in Cumbria being the first town to
switch this October.
A help scheme, which the BBC will establish and fund, will
provide practical help with the transition for people 75 and over
or with a significant disability. An estimated seven million UK
households will qualify for assistance from the Digital Switchover
Help Scheme between 2008 and 2012.
The measures allowing information sharing to identify those
eligible for help are supported by organisations representing
vulnerable groups, including the Digital Switchover Consumer
Experts Group, which includes Help the Aged, Age Concern, the
National Consumer Council, Sense, Community Service Volunteers ,
Royal National Institute for the Blind, Royal National Institute
for the Deaf and the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Notes to editors
1. The Digital Switchover (Disclosure of Information) Bill was
introduced into Parliament on 16 November 2006. It covers the
United Kingdom with provisions to extend the Bill to the Isle of
Man. It creates, within narrowly defined limits, legal authority
for the disclosure of social security information.
2. The Help Scheme will cover:
* all households with one person aged 75 or over;
* all households with one person with a severe disability. (This
will be defined as having an award of the following social
security benefits: disability living allowance (including where
the qualifying person is a child), attendance allowance,
equivalents under the industrial injuries disablement benefit
scheme and pre-2005 war pension schemes); and
* all households where one person is registered blind or
registered partially sighted where this is the case in the
relevant qualifying period. Help will be available free of charge
to all qualifying households; other households will pay a charge
of £40.
3. The BBC already has access to some social security data under
the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 -
this allows the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to disclose
data to help administer the 75+ TV Licence Fee Concession Scheme
4. Television signals to Whitehaven will switch from analogue to
digital on October 17 with the remaining analogue channels on
November 14.
5. On 29 May the BBC announced that it had appointed Capita to
run the help scheme in Whitehaven. The DCMS agreement with the BBC
on the Digital Switchover Help Scheme was published on Friday 4
May. The agreement means that the BBC Executive will now manage
the contractor who will be responsible for delivering the Digital
Switchover Help Scheme.
6. Recognising that the legislation would not be in place before
the eligibility period in Whitehaven began, Digital UK wrote to
everyone in Whitehaven in March 2007 to ask them if they are
eligible for help under the scheme. Once the Bill comes into
effect, social security information can be disclosed to Capita
subject to final discussions on DWP's security requirements.
The initial responses will be cross-checked with DWP data to
confirm that people are eligible and they will receive assistance
in due course.
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