I wish to present a petition to the honourable Commons of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the people of the constituency of Ealing, North and elsewhere

sheweth that the broadcasters are not providing complete access for deaf television viewers, for example, with subtitles or sign language; the number of viewers affected are at least 4 million; deaf viewers, as equal members of the general public, are entitled to equal access to television programmes.

The petition is led for my constituents by Mr. A. D. Murray of 15 Courtfield gardens, Ealing, London W.13 and Mr. R. W. Gillies of 59 Argyle road, Ealing, London W.13 with whom I strongly agree that proper provision must be made for deaf people to see and understand television with sub-titles so that they know exactly what is happening in the programmes. They are surely entitled to that.

Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House will ensure that legislation be passed placing an obligation on television channel operators to make their programmes more accessible to deaf people by using Teletext sub-titles, sign language or other means and to reach complete coverage by a fixed date.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

I wish to present a petition on behalf of more than 300 constituents who wish to object to the proposals of the Boundary Commission to disregard the wishes of the London borough of Barking and Dagenham and of the London borough of Redbridge for the division between those two authorities.

The humble petition of the residents of the London borough of Redbridge in my constituency who are affected by the recent Boundary Commission proposals sheweth that

they object to the Boundary Commission's proposals to transfer their property from the London Borough of Redbridge to the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House will ask the Boundary Commission to reconsider their proposals and accept the original recommendation put forward by the London Borough of Redbridge.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

My constituents wish to remain in a low-rated area. The low rates are the reason why they bought their property in the London borough of Redbridge.

I should like to present a petition regarding the deaf. It is the humble petition of the people of Ilford, South and is also presented on behalf of the constituents of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke). They state that they are concerned because

the broadcasters are not providing complete access for deaf television viewers, for example, with subtitles or sign language:

the number of viewers affected are at least 4 million; deaf viewers, as equal members of the general public, are entitled to equal access to television programmes.

The petition states:

Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House will ensure that legislation be passed placing an obligation on television channel operators to make their programmes more accessible to deaf people by using Teletext sub-titles, sign language or other means and to reach complete coverage by a fixed date.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

One of the television companies' main arguments for introducing television to this honourable House was that it would enable the deaf to see exactly what was going on. My constituents and I find it extraordinary that those same television companies, which have achieved their objective of getting television into the House, now deprive the deaf of the opportunity of knowing what is going on through the use of subtitles and other means.