Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with the BBC on taking steps to ensure that its commissioning processes are subject to independent scrutiny.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent and BBC commissioning is rightly a matter for the BBC, not for the Government.

The Charter requires the BBC to commission programmes in a way that is fair and transparent, allowing non-BBC producers to compete for BBC projects. Due to measures introduced by this Government, by the end of this Charter (2027), 100% of BBC television and 60% of BBC radio will be fully open to competition to support a diverse range of stories and views on the BBC.

The BBC has set out a clear commissioning framework and code of practice, agreed with Ofcom, that governs the commissioning of TV content from independent producers.