Statutory Instruments
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
Made
21st July 2000
Laid before Parliament
21st July 2000
Coming into force
1st August 2000
The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 1(3) and (4) of the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000(1), hereby makes the following Order—
1. This Order may be cited as the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 (Prescription of Information) Order 2000 and shall come into force on 1st August 2000.
2.—(1) Information of the description mentioned in paragraph (2) is hereby prescribed, in relation to the Secretary of State and the Department for Social Development (“the Northern Ireland department”), as “social security information” for the purposes of section 1 of the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000 (supply of information to the BBC etc. by the Secretary of State and the Northern Ireland department).
(2) The description of information referred to in paragraph (1) is information consisting of—
(a)the name, date of birth, address and national insurance number of an individual aged 74 years or over, and
(b)in a case where such an individual has died, that fact and the date on which he died.
Chris Smith
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
21st July 2000
(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order prescribes the descriptions of information that the Secretary of State (in practice, the Secretary of State for Social Security) and, in Northern Ireland, the Department for Social Development, can supply to the British Broadcasting Corporation (“BBC”).
The Order is made under the Television Licences (Disclosure of Information) Act 2000, section 1 of which permits the Secretary of State and the Department for Social Development to supply the BBC with “social security information”. Section 1(3) and (4) of the Act (read with section 5) provide that “social security information”, in relation to the Secretary of State and that Department respectively, means information of a description prescribed by order, being information held and obtained as a result, or for the purpose, of the exercise of his or (as the case may be) the Department’s functions in relation to social security or (in the case of the Secretary of State only) war pensions. By virtue of section 2 of the Act, information so supplied may be used only in connection with television licences for which no fee is payable, or reduced-fee licences. Since no licences have been prescribed as reduced-fee licences, the information will in practice be used in connection with free licences.
Article 2 provides that the information in question is the name, date of birth, address and national insurance number of a person aged 74 years or over, and in a case where such a person has died, that fact and the date when he died.
2000 c. 15. For the definition of “prescribed”, see section 5 of that Act.