Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on steps to accelerate progress towards the representation of disabled people in on-screen roles reaching the working-age population benchmark.

DCMS has regular discussions with Ofcom on a range of TV-related issues including diversity. While Ofcom has a duty to promote diversity and equality of opportunity in the TV and radio sectors, this only relates to those working off-screen. As part of this broadcasters provide data to Ofcom on the make-up of their workforce, including disability, which they report on annually.

Broadcasters are operationally and editorially independent, however we continue to challenge them to go further to address critical areas of under-representation including disability. This is because we want more people to be able to see themselves and their experiences reflected on screen as part of our national story.

There are various industry-led initiatives which we welcome, including Project Diamond which collects, monitors and reports on diversity data on-screen, as well as the TV Access Project which aims to achieve a structural shift in accessibility for disabled people on and off screen by 2030.