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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the letter of 20 October by Lord Ashton of Hyde concerning the draft BBC Charter and Agreement which has been placed in the Library of the House, whether they intend to ensure that the licence fee is for the exclusive benefit and use by the BBC to fund the performance of the BBC's functions and public purposes.

The licence fee is not a payment for BBC Services or any other specific television service. ​The government will trial a contestable fund to benefit underserved audiences and genres​​, funded from broadband underspend, over the coming three years.

The Government will consult on the fund in due course. ​