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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has regular discussions with BBC management on the sources from which the BBC receives external financing.

My Right Hon Friend the Secretary of State has had no regular discussions of this kind. The BBC is operationally independent of Government and it is a duty of the BBC Trust to exercise rigorous stewardship of public money and keep the BBC’s financial needs under review.