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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of trends in local and regional news provision across the UK.

We are committed to ensuring there are sustainable business models for high quality news media as set out in the manifesto, and this includes the local and regional press. In particular, government recognises that local and regional news outlets have been hit particularly hard by falling print circulations and the shift of advertising online.

We have been holding meetings with industry representatives to explore these issues which form one aspect of the work underway to develop the Digital Charter.