Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to the BBC World Service to help it perform its functions.

At a time of global challenges and uncertainty, the Government is committed to a successful BBC World Service. This is why it awarded a grant funding uplift of £32.6 million (31 per cent) for the World Service in 2025-26, taking our total contribution this year to £137 million.

That uplift secured the World Service's ability to reach audiences in acute need. Services like the emergency radio service for Gaza, reaching over 700,000 people each week; the lifeline service for Syria established within 5 days of Assad's fall; and most recently, the Myanmar service, providing critical information following the horrific earthquake.

It is also enabling the BBC to continue innovating and modernising - see for example their launch of an AI-supported pilot Polish-language news offer, BBC News Polska.

The World Service's Grant-in-Aid funding for the next three years will be decided through Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office allocations process. This will allocate budgets between 2026/27 & 2028/29. The BBC is editorially and operationally independent.