Alun Cairns
Main Page: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)Sir Jimmy Savile (BBC Inquiry)
Alun Cairns Excerpts(12 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Maria Miller
My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we must ensure that children’s concerns and allegations of impropriety or sexual abuse are taken seriously, whether within the police, the NHS or the BBC. He is right to make that challenge and to say that it should be an ongoing concern for the Government.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
The BBC has not always investigated in-house matters with the same rigour it rightly shows when looking at other organisations and individuals. Along with its 2002 child protection policy, which should have introduced a culture change, what reassurance can my right hon. Friend give that the BBC now has the leadership in place to deliver that culture change and investigate its own affairs as it does elsewhere?
Maria Miller
My hon. Friend is right that we have to ensure that there is that challenge, and ultimately that is the role of the trust, which represents the licence fee payer and must make sure it holds the executive to account. My predecessor introduced a number of changes to the trust’s role. We will continue to look at that role and, as we move towards charter renewal, it will of course be hotly in our sights.