Hansard

I, too, congratulate Jeremy Purvis on securing this very topical and important debate.

Earlier this year, I submitted to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission a survey that covered not only the provision of channels, including Border TV, but digital provision. In that survey, which was sent to 20,000 households and to which I received 7,000 responses, 54 per cent said that they were well informed about the switchover, 37 per cent said that they were not and 9 per cent were undecided. However, I want to draw a distinction between being informed about and being ready for the switchover, particularly where elderly people are concerned.

According to the latest figures, 52,000 households are covered by the Selkirk transmitter and its relays and, at the time of speaking, 10 per cent are still to convert to digital. Given that a high number of elderly people live in the area—indeed, the 2001 census revealed that 24,000 or 30 per cent of the population were pensioners—some very elderly, frail and vulnerable people are going to get lost in the process and will simply not know what is happening. As Jeremy Purvis has quite rightly pointed out, those people will lose their service when the switchover takes place.

Not that many elderly people will go on to the internet, but when I had a look at the Digital UK site I found the following lines:

"If you get a TV signal from a relay transmitter (Freeview) you need to toggle between analogue and digital."

I have no idea what toggling might be. With all the talk on that site about having to change the aerial and so on, very many elderly people who rely on their TV for their main companionship will simply be confused. I am sure that John Lamont will also mention this issue, but I subscribe to the view that certain areas will receive no service whatever.

Being aware is not the same as being ready. Indeed, only two days ago, Consumer Focus Scotland, which is tracking the experiences of more than 100 people in the Scottish Borders, said that viewers are not ready for switchover and highlighted the confusion that still reigns about what exactly is going to happen.

Why is this switchover happening? I am not going to be quite so benevolent towards the British Government, because this move is not purely about expanding choice. There is a clear vested financial interest in the Government's auctioning off of analogue channels in 2009. The money, which is estimated at between £5 billion and £10 billion, will go to the Treasury. Not only that, but the Treasury will also receive the VAT on the equipment that is needed to receive digital channels.

Other countries are switching over to digital, but some, including Holland and France, are not because of the costs. It is simply a mixed blessing, and we must not look at the move as if it is happening out of the goodness of the British Treasury's heart. A lot of money is involved, and I want some of it to go back to the Borders.

Why choose to roll out this switchover in an area that has a difficult topography, that has the lowest average wages in the country—according to last year's figures, the average weekly wage was £355 compared with the Scottish average of £436—and where 30 per cent of the population are elderly? The figures from Ofcom suggest that it will cost the average household in the Borders £132 to switch over two TV sets and a video. Many have not signed up to the help scheme—indeed, according to my figures, only 15 per cent have—and I do not know whether in these very straitened times of high energy bills and perhaps job losses people on very low incomes will be able to cover the cost.

As I have said, the switchover is a mixed blessing, and the huge caveat about it is whether the elderly, the vulnerable, those with impaired sight and others have had the financial help to which they are entitled and practical assistance in dealing with it. I ask the Treasury to put some of the money that it is scooping in from auctioning off the analogue spectrum into providing the Borders with full access to Scottish channels, particularly Scottish Television.