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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to maintain the diversity of the local newspaper sector in the UK.

As the Secretary of State has stated previously, Local papers are the bread and butter of journalism - they part of the communities they serve, and people rely on and respect them. In our manifesto, we committed to consulting on the introduction of a business rates relief for local newspapers in England, which we have now done, and are considering next steps.