BBC

Baroness Benjamin Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

The Government are committed to S4C and to maintaining minority language broadcasting. As I made clear in my Statement, we want to strengthen and sustain S4C and we have committed to a review in 2017, covering remit, funding and governance once the charter is settled for the BBC as a whole. If the noble Lord looks at page 59 of the document that we have put in the Printed Paper Office today, I hope that he will feel reassured.

[Baroness Benjamin (LD)]

My Lords, it was absolutely wonderful to discover that a BBC children’s budget will be maintained so that it can continue to deliver excellence. As it is intended to have funds for more children’s productions to address competition, where will the funds come from? Who will administer the funds and the cost of doing so and, most importantly, how many funds will there be to produce high-quality PSB children’s productions?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

This is our first day of discussion of the charter. I have made it clear that the BBC will have editorial independence, which of course will allow it to continue to make the children’s programmes that we all love. I explained that we were introducing a £20 million contestable fund and suggested that that could be used for children’s programming. The precise details are yet to be settled. The important point is that the Government will be consulting on the scale of the fund and how it will operate. I look forward to the noble Baroness giving us her assistance.