3.In November 1999 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that persons aged 75 or over would become entitled to receive a free television licence. Those proposals are due to be implemented as from 1st November 2000. Under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, the BBC administers the television licence system. The purpose of the new Act is to enable the Secretary of State−in practice, the Secretary of State for Social Security−and, in Northern Ireland, the Department for Social Development (referred to here and in the Act as “the Northern Ireland department”), to supply to the BBC limited descriptions of personal information to help the BBC verify the eligibility of persons for certain kinds of television licence−principally free television licences. The new Act also makes provision to protect such information by making it an offence for a person (e.g. an employee of the BBC) to disclose it without lawful authority.
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