Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact of the BBC's use of externally contracted presenters on the impartiality of its output and content.

The impartiality of the BBC, as a publicly-funded broadcaster, goes to the very heart of the contract between the Corporation and all the licence fee payers it serves. This is why the BBC’s Royal Charter enshrines the need for the BBC’s services and output to be impartial.

The Charter guarantees the BBC’s operational and editorial independence, which means that it is for the BBC itself to determine how to deliver impartiality in its output. This would include the BBC’s approach to using externally contracted presenters and what impact that has on the impartiality of its output and content.

The Government stands fully behind the requirements of the Royal Charter, and has been clear that the BBC must place a firm emphasis on impartiality and maintaining the highest editorial standards. It can never be the BBC’s role to judge, or appear to judge, the diverse values of people from across the country it serves. In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important, and the BBC has been, and should be, a beacon that sets standards to which others can aspire.

The Government established Ofcom as the independent regulator of the BBC in 2017, and it remains a priority for the Government to work with Ofcom to deliver an effective and proportionate regulatory framework that holds the BBC to account while maintaining its creative freedom and operational independence. Ofcom is responsible for the regulation of editorial standards, and can consider complaints about BBC content, including accuracy and impartiality.