GOVERNMENT RISKS JEOPARDISING SWITCHOVER IN THE BORDERS - MOORE

5.20.03pm GMT Wed 14th Nov 2007

Borders MP Michael Moore has said that today's report by the National Audit Office into the BBC's preparedness for digital switchover reveals that the Government risks jeopardising switchover in the Borders.

The report concludes that the current timetable in place will make it impossible for all the lessons to be learned from the experiences in Whitehaven and Copeland before the Borders makes the switch next year.

The report also reveals that government delays led to a 'Red Status Alert' being issued by Digital UK in August due to alarm about the tight timetable. Furthermore, the report announced that take-up of the targeted assistance scheme to help vulnerable and elderly viewers in Whitehaven was lower than had been expected.

Commenting after the release of the report, Mr Moore said:

"This independent report on digital switchover shows that government delays risk jeopardising switchover in the Borders. I am extremely concerned that there is not now enough time for all the lessons to be learned from the switchover trials that have already taken place. It is also worrying that things got so serious that Digital UK had to issue a 'Red Status Alert' for the whole switchover programme.

"The Borders is the next area to switch and, significantly, will be the first large region to undergo the process. Unfortunately these findings do not bode at all well. I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport urgently to ask him to make every possible resource available to address these issues before it is too late."