To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will report progress on the introduction of an amateur radio novice licence.

I am pleased to announce that following discussions on novice licence conditions with the Radio Society of Great Britain, the Radiocommunications Agency has today published a final draft of the proposed novice licence. A copy has been placed in the Library. Work is also in hand on setting up arrangements for the training and examination of potential licensees. Those arrangements will necessarily take some time to put in hand but the agency would hope to the be ready to issue the first novice licences in early 1991.