Media and Lobby Briefings

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Hailsham (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords, Downing Street’s director of communications, Lee Cain, said:

“We are welcome to brief whoever we want whenever we want”.


But does the noble Earl not agree that this democratically elected Government are not welcome to ban whatever news outlet or journalist they want whenever they want? What were the criteria for this smaller meeting and where was the transparency? When does a smaller meeting shrink so much that it becomes Dominic Cummings or some other special adviser on his or her own?

[Earl Howe]

As I said, my Lords, this was a technical and specialist briefing for selected journalists. There is an opportunity, twice a day, for anyone with a Press Gallery pass to attend lobby briefings and no journalists are barred. There was a lobby briefing yesterday afternoon when journalists had yet another opportunity to ask questions on the UK-EU relationship, which the Prime Minister had been addressing earlier in the day, or indeed to ask questions on any other topic. I am afraid that I cannot identify with the slant that the noble Baroness has put on this matter.

Channel 4

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 10th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

We have made clear our commitment to funding in Wales. S4C continues to have, as I think the noble Lord will be pleased to hear, a dual funding model and currently receives around £75 million a year from the licence fee.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords, the Prime Minister has made it clear that privatisation is under consideration. Will the Minister share with the Chamber what part of this great British and, can I say, Conservative success—an essential part of our creative industries, as the Minister mentioned, and the fastest-growing sector of our economy—is not working?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, we are looking at Channel 4 objectively to see whether it is meeting its remit properly and whether there are changes that need to be made to the remit or its distribution. Of course, as the Prime Minister said, we need to ensure that the great channel goes on being great for many years to come. It is perfectly okay to review things.

BBC Royal Charter

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Morris of Aberavon (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I have not seen the News-watch website that was referred to, but I will obviously take the opportunity to look at it as part of my induction into this vital area. All aspects of the kind that the noble Lord describes will be looked at in the review. As I said, I think that the comments from this House will be very helpful to us in coming to the right conclusions.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords, does the Minister not agree that a BBC funded by the licence fee is essential in a changing world as a safeguard for British creativity? The creative industries are the fastest growing sector of the UK economy and a crucial part of our continued prosperity and the economic recovery.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Baroness’s point about the power and importance of the creative industries, and of course the BBC plays a huge part in that, not least around the world because of the respect that it is accorded.

Leveson Inquiry

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Thursday 29th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, the noble Baroness’s words are particularly poignant because of what she and her family went through some years ago. I am sure that I speak for the whole House in saying that there is no place in ethical journalism for what happened to her; it was outrageous. It is one of the issues that have brought the reasons for this report to a head.

I confirm that we will act swiftly. We have acted swiftly already today by announcing the areas on which we comprehensively agree and in announcing cross-party talks. Perhaps I may reiterate what I said a moment ago: there is no reason why the press cannot start in this new direction as quickly as possible, providing a system of independent and transparent regulation with very firm criteria, along the lines proposed in the report from Lord Justice Leveson.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

Lord Justice Leveson said today that the Black-Hunt proposal for a reformed PCC does not come close to delivering regulation that is genuinely free and independent both of the industry and political control, and has called for an independent verifier established by statute. Twenty years ago, David Calcutt QC came to virtually the same conclusion and was ignored. Are we not in danger here of repeating the mistake of 1992 of asking for advice and then ignoring it?

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, the overwhelming majority of the recommendations, suggestions and thought process that Lord Justice Leveson has gone through have been accepted by us and, no doubt, by the press. I say “no doubt”—I very much hope that that applies to the press. There are issues that we believe need to be explored more thoroughly, particularly about the role that legislation should play. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister said this afternoon that he had issues on the principle, the practicality and the necessity of that. These are issues that we can explore in the near future.

Broadcasting: Digital Radio

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shutt of Greetland]

My Lords, the noble Lord gave me notice of his question, and it is a good job that he did. We are not aware of any plans for the BBC to change the delivery of the time signal. However, I understand that the BBC already compensates for the time delay in analogue radio broadcasts. Should a digital switchover take place, the BBC would equally be able to compensate for any time delay in the broadcast of digital radio transmissions. The Government have no plans to add MSF radio clocks to digital radios at this time. However, the Government are willing to discuss this matter with manufacturers.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury]

My Lords—

[Lord Maxton]

My Lords—