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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to take steps to ensure licence payers are able to access BBC iPlayer when outside the UK; and if so, when.

The Government's BBC White Paper published in May 2016, 'A BBC for the Future', made clear that the Government agrees that BBC content should be portable following the closure of the iPlayer loophole.

The BBC is an independent body governed by the Royal Charter. Under the terms of the Charter, the BBC is operationally and editorially independent of Government and there is no provision for the Government to intervene in the Corporation's day-to-day operations. Therefore it will ultimately be up to the BBC to determine whether or not their content will be available abroad.