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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will require that public service broadcasters consult local communities before reducing local (a) radio and (b) television services.

The Government recognises the positive impact that local public service broadcasting – particularly access to local radio and television services – has on local communities.

In the UK, broadcasters, including our six public service broadcasters, are rightly operationally and editorially independent of government. It would therefore not be appropriate for the government to prescribe how those broadcasters approach decisions about their operations. Nevertheless, the government would expect public service broadcasters, as a matter of course, to consider carefully the views of the audiences they serve when determining the provision of both local and national services, and to set out detail on how these decisions will impact audiences and communities.