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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay on 13 March (HL2878), how the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to safeguard the independence of the BBC should be exercised.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent of HM Government, and the Government rightly therefore does not interfere in these matters. The licence fee model confers on the BBC a unique responsibility to its audiences to place a particular focus on impartiality, which is the bedrock of trust in the BBC as an institution.

It is right that the Government engages constructively with the BBC to ensure that it upholds these high standards expected by the public. When there is a risk that trust and faith in the organisation may be undermined, that should be of concern to the BBC, of concern to Ofcom, and of concern to the Government and Parliament.