A committee of MPs will accuse ministers of failing to protect the public this week, because they have allowed people to buy millions of soon to be obsolete television sets.

Over two million analogue television sets were sold in 2007, the powerful Public Accounts Committee will point out, all of which will have to be upgraded to receive any programmes after digital switchover.

Andy Burnham’s Department for Culture and John Hutton’s Department for Business will be told they have “not taken effective action to protect consumer interests,” in the final draft of the report seen by The Times ahead of publication on Thursday.

Analogue sets will all have to be upgraded, with the purchase of a £20-£30 set top box to ensure their owners can receive a digital signal. Switchover to digital is happening between 2008 and 2012, depending on where people live in the UK.

Echoing the committee's concerns, Don Foster, Liberal Democrat spokesman for culture, media and sport said: “Even today it’s still cheaper to buy an analogue TV with a separate box so it's hardly surprising so many are still being sold".

Unhappy MPs said that the Government was relying too much on a £200 million public information campaign led by Digital UK, and voluntary labelling of sets by retailers to tell consumers what to do — and asked why the sale of analogue sets had not been banned as happened in France.

However, Sir Brian Bender, permanent secretary, for the Department for Enterprise, told the Committee in oral evidence that, despite the French action, “our legal advisers are not confident it is legal under the EU treaty” and that a proposal to ban the sale of old, analogue sets “got little support” when it was put out to public consultation.

Televisions are normally bought once every seven years. In the first half of last year, 1.8 million analogue sets were sold, accounting for 45 per cent of all television sales. By December that proportion had dropped to 27 per cent, although the pre-Christmas season is the heaviest period for buying.

Government departments responsible for switchover also conceded that they have very little data as to whether people buying analogue televisions knew what they were doing, and whether retailers were complicit in the practice. “Reliance on voluntary labelling and the work of Digital UK to protect consumers from potential mis-selling of analogue television in the run up to switchover has, so far, not worked,” the Committee concluded.

It is estimated that 3.75 million homes have not converted a single set to digital television, while there remain a further 26 million uncoverted sets, many of which are second or third televisions scattered around the home. As well as requiring a set top box, some homes will need to have their aerial upgraded, at a cost of £60 to £180.

However, there were signs that people were changing over when necessary. Whitehaven, in Cumbria, was the first town in the UK to go digital, in a trial conducted earlier this year. It found that fewer eligible people — pensioners and those on other benefits — needed help with converting their sets than expected.

On the basis of that experience it is thought the £800 million set aside by the BBC to complete the conversion is not expected to be used up in full. The Public Accounts Committee said that ministers should decide what happens to the anticipated £250 million underspend, and whether it should be refunded to the public in the form of a reduced television licence fee.

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