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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure equitable levels of representation of Northern Ireland in UK (a) broadcasting and (b) public service media.

Public service media plays an important role in terms of providing news and other content which reflects the full diversity of people, communities and experiences across the nations and regions, including Northern Ireland.

Currently under their Operating Licence, the BBC has to produce 3% of its network programming output in Northern Ireland each year, by spend and hours. Meanwhile Channel 4’s nations quota for content spend and hours has recently been increased by Ofcom from 9% to 12% from 2030 which Channel 4 have committed to delivering by 2028.

Ofcom has overall responsibility for these quotas and monitoring compliance.