Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Joint Concept Note 2/18 entitled Information Advantage, published by his Department in November 2018, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the level of resources available to the BBC World Service on the UK's (a) strategic information capability, (b) capacity to counter adversaries' use of information as a weapon and (c) capacity to use digital technology to achieve influence.

Joint Concept Note (JCN) 2/18, Information Advantage, sets out proposals for how Defence could use information differently, it is not Government policy. The BBC World Service is not part of Defence and therefore its funding is not a matter for the Ministry of Defence.