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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the local democracy reporting service on providing (a) public service accountability and (b) fact based local reporting.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) supports the vital role of local news, helping communities and local businesses to scrutinise decisions that impact them and holding public services to account through fact-based local reporting. The Government welcomed the recent retendering of LDRS contracts and the extension of the scheme until the end of the current BBC Charter period (December 2027).

Separately, we are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. As part of this work, we are exploring the role of the BBC in the local news market, including the contribution made by the LDRS, as we move towards the next Charter Review. We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops. An industry working group was set up in June to consider the issues in more detail and has been meeting regularly since then, including with BBC representatives to discuss the LDRS. More will be announced on the Strategy in due course.