Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) effectiveness of the role of BBC Radio 4 in national emergency communications and (b) the resilience of its transmission network to power loss.

The BBC has specific requirements under its Framework Agreement in relation to broadcast security and resilience, and works closely with DCMS in ensuring its networks are able to support emergency communications. DCMS has full oversight of these plans and works with Cabinet Office and other lead Government Departments to ensure BBC’s capabilities are integrated into wider resilience planning.

Detailed planning and preparations for a range of risks including power outages is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC has informed the Government that its plan for maintaining emergency communications to the public in an extended national power outage includes a detailed assessment of back up power generation capacity and capabilities at key BBC sites and transmitter sites operated by third-party providers. The plan for this risk is designed to maintain broadcasts of key BBC radio channels nationally to both urban and rural communities. The BBC regularly tests its plan and procedures including live tests of its broadcast systems.

The loss of broadcast coverage to a specific geographic area is an operational matter for the BBC. The BBC collects and holds detailed information about the disruption of its radio services from individual transmitters.