BBC: Finance

(asked on 26th January 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her announcement on 17 January 2022 that BBC funding will be frozen for the next two years, whether she will take steps to protect funding for programming in the UK's minority languages.


Answered by
Julia Lopez Portrait
Julia Lopez
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 31st January 2022

The UK Government has a strong record of demonstrating its commitment to minority language broadcasting to ensure that our broadcasting sector services all audiences of the UK nations and regions.

The BBC’s Royal Charter is an important way of delivering on this. One of the BBC's Public Purposes is to "reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom". The BBC also has a general duty under Diversity to "support the regional and minority languages of the United Kingdom through its output and services and through partnerships with other organisations".

I recognise the incredibly valuable contribution that our minority language broadcasters make, and the licence fee settlement will continue to support these contributions by providing the BBC with billions in annual public funding, allowing it to deliver its mission and public purposes and to continue doing what it does best.

Reticulating Splines