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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to make the BBC more democratically accountable.

The BBC is an independent body governed by the Royal Charter.

The Royal Charter requires the BBC to prepare, publish and lay before Parliament an annual report for each financial year to set out the details of its activities and compliance with its duties. Further, the Royal Charter sets out that the BBC must also comply with requests to appear before or submit evidence to either of the Houses of Parliament or one of their committees.

The BBC also allows licence fee payers to hold it to account on a range of issues by contacting the BBC directly.