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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring at least 50 per cent of the licence fees raised in each region to be spent in that region on programme commissioning.

The recently published White Paper addresses concerns that were raised during our public consultation by the devolved nations and some English regions. The Government has made detailed proposals which ensure that the BBC is accountable to licence fee payers in all nations and regions in the UK through a clear focus on the BBC’s obligations in the new operating licence regime, clear board-level responsibilities, and a continued commitment to the out-of-London production targets.

Budgeting and commissioning decisions are editorial matters for the BBC.