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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with the Director General of the BBC on the BBC report entitled Across the UK, published March 2021.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with the BBC to discuss a range of matters, including how it plans to reflect, represent and serve all parts of the country.

In May 2022, the Government published updates to the BBC’s Framework Agreement to reflect the BBC’s latest commitments on impartiality, accessibility, and moving more activities outside of London. This includes a number of commitments from the BBC’s “Across the UK” report in March 2021. The BBC must report on all of these new commitments in the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts.

The Government expects Ofcom, as the BBC’s independent regulator, to ensure the BBC is robustly held to account in delivering its public service duties.