BBC: Licence Fee

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Rawlings]

The noble Lord, Lord Soley, is absolutely right. The BBC World Service is of paramount importance. The October 2010 licence fee settlement transferred funding of the BBC World Service from the Foreign Office to the BBC from 2014-15. The BBC Trust sets out the overall strategic direction of the BBC, including the World Service. The World Service will be funded from the licence fee from 2014. The transfer will increase the BBC's ability to make further economies to avoid duplication across the whole of the BBC.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

My Lords, I first thank the Minister for the agreement in the funding of S4C to use licence fee revenue. That is a sensible and sensitive response to a battle that we have been fighting for a long time. But what revenue from the licence fee comes from the various nations of the UK? How much comes from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England? Secondly, could we have an assurance that no use of the revenue from the licence fee will in any way prevent the granting of concessionary television licences to those over a certain age?

[Baroness Rawlings]

My noble friend Lord Roberts asks an important question regarding fees, which obviously come from throughout the United Kingdom. The proposed S4C/BBC partnership arrangements are a success for Welsh language broadcasting. The arrangements make certain that S4C’s editorial and managerial independence will offer a reassuring level of financial security for the next five years. The partnership offers the stability and certainty that S4C needs so that it can go from strength to strength under the management of its new chairman and new chief executive.