Lord Fowler
Main Page: Lord Fowler (Crossbench - Life peer)
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the noble Lord made a number of points but he specifically asked about the input on charter renewal discussions. There are 18 months until the current charter expires, and the Government are committed to a thorough and open process where all aspects of the BBC will be up for discussion. That debate with the public and with the BBC will continue as planned, and an announcement on how charter review will be run will be made in due course. The noble Lord mentioned Channel 4. There are no current plans to privatise Channel 4. He mentioned S4C. The Government are committed to the provision of minority language broadcasting. This settlement for the BBC will mean it has to make some choices about how the licence fee funds are spent.
Lord Fowler (Con)
My Lords, this is a surprising Statement. Does it mean that the continuance of the BBC licence fee has now been confirmed, that this is off the table and that there is no question of it being reopened in the charter discussions? Otherwise, it would seem that much of what the Minister said does not have a vast amount of meaning. He says no decision will be taken prior to the charter review. Surely a massive decision has been taken prior to the charter review, in that an indiscriminate cut of £0.5 billion is being made in the BBC budget without any thought being given to the effect upon programming and news coverage. Surely, as the noble Lord opposite said, if free television licences for all those over 75 is government policy, it should be funded by the Government and not just passed on to the BBC.
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, my noble friend is well known for his interest in these matters. As I said before, providing a free licence to people over 75 was a manifesto commitment. The noble Lord made a number of other points and I am afraid I will have to write to him on those.