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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to reinstate direct funding of the BBC monitoring service and the BBC World Service.

The World Service is one of BBC's most distinctive services and it is a vital part of UK's soft power influence around the world. The government has protected licence fee funding for the​ World Service at £254m a year for the next five years, with additional Exchequer funding of £34m in 2016/17 and £85m per year for the following three years.

​BBC Monitoring provides a valuable service to the Government in monitoring and recording media output around the world. It is important that BBC has full editorial and managerial independence and integrity in the provision of BBC Monitoring, and this includes funding decisions. However, BBC Monitoring must be provided in accordance with the Monitoring Agreement agreed between BBC and the Cabinet Office.