asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is yet able to announce Her Majesty's Government's conclusions on the report of the advisory panel on technical transmission standards for direct broadcasting by satellite.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry and I have now considered the panel's report (Cmnd. 8751) and have decided to accept its recommendation that the C-MAC system should be adopted as the standard for direct broadcasting by satellite in the United Kingdom. The detailed specification will be published before the end of the year and I shall ensure that
| Enforcement action taken by HSC enforcement authorities 1980 and 1981 | ||||||
| Prosecutions* | Prohibition Notices† | Improvement Notices† | ||||
| 1980 | 1981 | 1980 | 1981 | 1980 | 1981 | |
| Local authorities | 307 | 276 | 1,003 | 1,017 | 6,223 | 6,033 |
| Enforcement authorities other than local authorities (Prosecutions—cases taken) | 1,443 | 1,143 | 2,235 | 2,068 | 6,402 | 5,793 |
| of which Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate (Prosecutions—informations laid): | ||||||
| (i) total | 2,323 | 1,385 | 1,585 | 1,236 | 4,385 | 3,935 |
| (ii) relating to health matters | 92 | 63 | 48 | ‡ | 401 | ‡ |
| (iii) relating to asbestos | 20 | 24 | 22 | ‡ | 25 | ‡ |
| (iv) relating to other carcinogens | 13 | 2 | 8 | ‡ | 20 | ‡ |
Notes:
* Prosecutions for all enforcement authorities refer to cases taken. For Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate, the figures refer to informations laid. One case can include several informations.
a copy is placed in the Library. I shall arrange for the question of encryption to be considered urgently as recommended by the panel.