Ofcom: Public Service Broadcasting

Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I am most grateful to the noble Lord and am particularly conscious of his long-term interest in this, having been so much involved in the setting up of Ofcom. I assure him that Ofcom will be required to ensure that the quota requirements are met by the public service broadcasting sector, whether in news, current affairs, original productions, independent productions, outside-London productions or regional news. It must also publish data on compliance with the above quotas in an annual PSB report. The Government are working closely with Ofcom, which we want to continue to be a very successful organisation.

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, I congratulate the Government, through my noble friend, on the fact that they launched this particular consultation on Shakespeare’s birthday.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

We should all celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday. In the arts and culture debate tomorrow, I might mention something about our most famous poet. I want to emphasise that Ofcom has now been in existence for 10 years and it is appropriate, given the huge technological advances in this sector, that we should look at how we could do things better.