Public Service Broadcasting

Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My noble friend makes a good and interesting point and I look forward to hearing the detail of his ideas in the coming weeks and months.

[Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury (Con)]

Does my noble friend agree that, now that the World Service is financed by the BBC, it is in a much more secure position than when it was in the home of the Foreign Office?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I cannot but agree with my noble friend. I was pleased to see that the audience figures actually increased by 10% to 210 million worldwide in 2015—an awesome bit of public diplomacy, in my opinion.