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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the letter sent to her by the chair of Ofcom regarding the Communications Acts 2003, 27(6), if she will make it her policy to extend the Communications Acts 2003, 27(6), to include all equality strands covered in the Equality Act 2010, specifically religion or belief.

Our media should reflect the population as a whole. The government believes that broadcasters should be leading the way on improving diversity monitoring in support of this goal, including by voluntarily providing data across all of the equality strands to Ofcom. It is right that voluntary approaches are fully explored before legislative change is considered, and the government urges all parties to work together to improve monitoring of diversity levels. Government will continue to work closely with Ofcom on this matter.