Thank you. I’m very grateful to the Conservatives’ spokesperson for his kind remarks. I look forward to our conversations over the coming period on this and, I’m sure, other matters as well. I’ll start, if I could, by answering your last question first. The Member will be aware that there is a memorandum of understanding in place between the Welsh Government and the BBC and DCMS that will describe many of the processes and lines of accountability that he has outlined. But, I would prefer to focus not so much on the hard lines, which he has described, but on a debate and a discussion that is a much richer debate and discussion than perhaps we’ve had in the past on the nature of broadcasting and the media and how it affects the lives of people here in Wales and elsewhere. He’s absolutely right to describe broadcasting as being a non-devolved subject, but much of the matters that broadcasting affects, of course, are devolved. I’ve always seen broadcasting as being much more of a shared responsibility, whereby much of the economic regulation should and would clearly best take place in either the United Kingdom or, in some cases, at a European level. But, many of the cultural issues that are affected by broadcasting, and democratic issues affected by broadcasting, should rightly lie here in this place. So, it has always been an area where there has been a shared interest. The Member’s also aware that broadcasting has a much greater political salience in Wales than in many other parts of the United Kingdom for some of the very clear and obvious historical and cultural reasons.

So, people in Wales will expect this place to take a full and active part in the debate over broadcasting. We have put in place the structures that will enable us to do so. It is my expectation that the BBC, other public service broadcasters and Ofcom will play a full part in those lines of accountability, which will be both hard lines, which are set out in policy and sometimes in law, but at the same time will want to participate in a much wider debate about the evolving nature of the media in our society.

One of those debates is about the news values that the Member referred to in his opening remarks. I’ve found it difficult sometimes to accept that the news values that should drive and guide decision making within the BBC always represent what is of importance to people throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. Decisions taken by this place are decisions that affect much of the lives of people in Wales and yet the proceedings of this place are rarely covered by network programming and network news in the UK by the BBC. I think that’s a significant failure and I think it’s an ongoing failure, and I’m glad that the BBC have at times recognised that failure. What is necessary are structures to ensure that this doesn’t happen, but also the cultural change that will enable the BBC to better fulfil its obligations and its mission in the future. I hope that is what we will achieve by way of the debate that we are having through this charter renewal process.

The Conservative spokesperson, Llywydd, spoke about the partnership between the BBC and S4C. I know that this is all too often seen as a threat to S4C. I do not see it in those terms. I believe that a partnership between two of our key public service broadcasters can bring great benefits to people in Wales and can ensure that we maximise the investment that takes place in the creation of Welsh language content, and enabling that Welsh language content to reach viewers and users both in Wales and elsewhere. I want to see S4C maintain its independence—its operational independence, its editorial independence. However, that does not mean that there needs to be a very great gulf between the interests of S4C and the interests of the BBC, and we would expect and anticipate that both broadcasters work closely together. The current partnership arrangement that is in place is something that I believe is succeeding and is enabling us to deliver high-quality content, but to do so at a cost to the licence-fee payer that is both reasonable and that will sustain S4C into the future. What I want to see is to ensure that we do have the structures in place at the moment that ensure that S4C is able to produce programming to the highest production values, and I am not convinced that the current UK Government is committed to that. I want to see the current UK Government move away from the position where it was a few years ago, where it was, frankly, bullying S4C. We need to ensure that the BBC, in taking decisions over funding S4C, takes decisions that enable S4C to continue to produce high-quality Welsh language programming. I hope that the financial commitments that I’ve described in answer to other questions will also provide the sort of certainty that you’re looking for.