Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Hunt Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure scrutiny of expenditure by the BBC.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

In September last year, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Mr Foster) announced full access for the National Audit Office to the BBC accounts, and I am confident that plans will be in place to allow that to happen by November this year in accordance with our departmental business plan.

[Stephen Phillips]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that answer. At the moment, funding for the World Service comes from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office budget, as a result of which it is subject to scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee. When funding for the World Service transfers to the BBC, how will he ensure that those arrangements remain in place?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, and that is exactly why it is important that the National Audit Office has full, unrestricted access to the BBC’s accounts, including the ability to examine its spending on the BBC World Service. I have a meeting with the incoming chairman of the BBC Trust on 9 May, and I will discuss that very point with him then.

[Mr Ivan Lewis (Bury South) (Lab)]

Before the election, the Secretary of State said that it would be perverse for local television to receive public subsidy, yet he is forcing the BBC to provide £25 million of licence fee payers’ money to subsidise local TV. Does he not agree that it is perverse, at a time when he is promoting local TV, that the BBC is considering cutting local radio, which is so vibrant and so central to the heart of many of our communities? Can we try to achieve cross-party consensus and have a dialogue with the BBC about the importance of BBC local radio to many of our communities?

[Mr Hunt]

The question is about value for money and how the BBC spends the licence fee, and I am very confident that the agreement that I secured with the BBC last autumn will lead to efficiency savings and better use of licence fee payers’ money, but should not lead to reductions in core BBC services. I would be very concerned if any plans announced by the BBC were to lead to any such reductions.

[Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon) (Con)]

Although I welcome the moves to increase the NAO’s access to the accounts of the BBC, the Secretary of State will be aware that the Comptroller and Auditor General has written to him to say that he will still not have the ability to decide what to do and when to do it. Does he agree that that ability is essential if the NAO is to have the genuinely unfettered access that he has promised?

[Mr Hunt]

I agree that the NAO should have unfettered access to the BBC accounts. I take heart from the comments that the incoming chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, made to my hon. Friend’s Committee, when he said that he wanted the NAO to have full, unrestricted access and to be able to go where it wished to ensure and scrutinise value for money at the BBC.

[Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) (Con)]

7. What steps he is taking to promote women’s football.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

10. What mechanisms his Department has used to identify efficiency savings since May 2010.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

My Department has one of the most ambitious plans for efficiency savings in Whitehall, having committed to reduce our costs by 50%. By doing that, we have been able to reduce our cuts to the majority of front-line cultural and sporting organisations to just 15%.

[Mr Hollobone]

Is it the Secretary of State’s ambition to make his the most efficient Whitehall Department and, if so, how confident is he that he will achieve it?

[Mr Hunt]

It is absolutely my objective, and I wish to pay tribute to the officials in my correspondence department who have managed to increase the proportion of correspondence replied to within 48 hours to more than 60%, which is incredibly impressive. My hon. Friend sets an example for all of us with his own frugality and Labour Members who were Ministers in the previous Government should perhaps pause and reflect on the way in which they used taxpayers’ money. In this Department they spent more than £300,000 on ministerial cars: we spent just £8,000 on minicabs. They spent more than £100,000 on hospitality: we halved it—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Secretary of State must resume his seat. The general point has been explicitly made. Question time must not be abused and I know that the Secretary of State, who takes Parliament seriously, will not try that with me.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)]

T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

This House has already expressed its good wishes to the royal couple for tomorrow’s events. I know that we would also wish to express our good wishes to the 500,000 people planning to go to street parties who are anxiously looking at the clouds. After my earlier slap on the wrist I hesitate to crave your indulgence, Mr Speaker, but as Culture Secretary, I would like to read a couple of lines from the nation’s greatest playwright to honour the happy couple. These come from sonnet 136 by Shakespeare:

“Make but my name thy love, and love that still,

And then thou lovest me for my name is ‘Will’.”

[Dr Huppert]

I am not sure that I can follow that quite so elegantly. I understand the argument for controls on ambush marketing in the forthcoming Olympic games, but what assurances can the Secretary of State give the House and the general public that they will be treated sensitively and that people will not be dealt with heavy handedly if they happen to wear clothing with the wrong label, eat food of the wrong brand, or try to pay for things with the wrong credit card?

[Mr Hunt]

I hope that I can reassure my hon. Friend that we will apply the rules sensitively. Everyone wants the Olympics to be a success, as they want the royal wedding tomorrow to be a success. Peer pressure from crowds is one of the best ways of ensuring that people behave sensibly on such occasions, although I fully take on board his points.

[Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab)]

When we are cutting spending on everything outside the House of Commons, will the Minister consider freezing spending on the House of Commons and Government art collection for the lifetime of this Parliament? Surely what money there is would be better spent on struggling libraries, theatre groups, galleries and other cultural organisations across Britain that are enjoyed by millions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

T7. In the light of the considerable concerns arising from the ongoing criminal investigations into phone hacking in the News International stable, is the Secretary of State now minded to postpone his decision on the future of BSkyB until such time as those criminal investigations have been concluded?

[Mr Hunt]

The decision I have to take about the Sky merger relates to media plurality, and we are in the process of taking that decision. I am very concerned about the news about phone hacking. It is a criminal offence. Two people have already gone to prison and three people have been arrested. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, the police must follow their investigations wherever they lead because the public must have confidence that, with a free press, the press use that freedom responsibly.

The Leader of the House was asked—