DIGITAL CHALLENGE GRANT TO SUNDERLAND

That this House congratulates Sunderland City Council, which will receive £3.5 million to put its projects into action from the Government's Digital Challenge Scheme, which the Council hopes will eventually benefit 500 community groups; notes that one of its schemes utilises the data network available on 3G mobile telephones to link carers and the people they care for to a 24-hour contact centre; also notes that the centre can track and monitor the cared-for person to allow the carer some time off; and further notes that another scheme puts a desktop video conferencing system in the hands of local voluntary groups to talk to each other for free over the internet and that such systems have also been used by schools in the Washington district of Sunderland to link up to schools in Washington DC in the US.