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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cessation of BBC Sounds coverage outside of the UK on listeners living in border counties on the Island of Ireland.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent of the Government, and decisions on how it discharges its obligations, such as its changes to its BBC Sounds service, are a matter for the BBC. The Government has therefore not assessed the potential impact of the BBC’s changes to its BBC Sounds service. The BBC has announced its own decision to delay the blocking of BBC Sounds outside of the UK while working on plans to continue to make other BBC stations available to listeners outside the UK.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) meets regularly with representatives of the BBC on a range of matters, including how it engages listeners both in the UK and internationally.