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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps with the OFCOM to waive the temporary licence fee required for churches to use radio wavelengths for drive in church services.

The Government understands that Ofcom has recently published updated licensing information for people and organisations wishing to put on drive-in services. These events need a ‘restricted service licence’, so people in their cars can hear what is being said on their car radios.

It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator, to set tariffs to cover their licensing costs, and to ensure that these are reasonable attributable to the sectors from which they recover them.

Fees for restricted service licences will vary according to the band, the power and the duration for which the applicant requires the licence, and the options and associated costs are set out in Ofcom’s annually published tariff tables.