BBC

Lord Gordon of Strathblane Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

We should reiterate our record on languages today, having confirmed extra money and having brought in extra languages and countries recently. This is a vital contribution to the UK’s soft power and an excellent settlement.

[Lord Gordon of Strathblane (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Wills (Lab)]

My Lords, I have been waiting a very long time to get in. I want to return the Minister to one of these devil details: the public service content fund. She addressed the question asked by my noble friend Lord Collins but she did not answer it. I therefore ask her again: will she give a guarantee that that will not be used to salami-slice the licence fee? That guarantee is particularly important in view of the grudging acceptance in the Statement of the licence fee and the fulsome praise she gave for that public service content fund. Does the Minister accept that the licence fee is the foundation for the excellence of the BBC as the world’s most outstanding national broadcaster?