Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. I rise as a former member of staff of the BBC, and I have direct experience of working in this area in Wales. I know that BBC Wales itself is very eager to make programmes about and for Wales, but BBC Wales is very small, of course, within the wider regime of the BBC throughout the UK. We hear very often the right words being said by the heads of the BBC in London, and the same is true this time with the promise of additional funding for English-language programmes for audiences in Wales. But words are one thing, and action is another. The next thing then is to see the genuine effect of that action being taken.

I don’t doubt that the BBC will keep to its word in giving additional funding for English-language programmes in Wales. We don’t know how much funding there this, and we also have to remember that that additional funding will come at a time when there will be an expectation for the BBC to make significant savings. So, we can’t allow that funding to be nothing more than mitigating funds when we’ve heard already that English-language budgets have fallen around a quarter over the past decade.

To produce real programmes you need real budgets. Of course, there are savings that are possible to be made. It’s worth congratulating S4C for that—for having succeeded in making such amazing, incredible savings during a very difficult time over the past three years. They’ve succeeded to produce excellent programmes on very small budgets. I know because I have presented many of them, and it’s very good to see significant increases and progress being made in audience figures for S4C recently across different platforms in broadcasting in the UK over the past year.

But a great deal of that success in producing good programmes cheaply has happened because of the commitment of excellent staff to Welsh language broadcasting but also to the broadcasting industry in Wales. But we can’t continue to expect that commitment to make up for the shortfall in funding. The pressure can’t be endless, and if we want to see programmes with good content that look good, that have the ability to draw in an audience in any language, then we need investment.

Another matter is the practical barriers, of course, as budgets decrease. The number of broadcasting slots in Wales has also decreased for Welsh-based programmes. So, as well as the funding, we need the platform to broadcast those programmes. We’ve spoken in the Chamber before about BBC 2W. There were wide-ranging peak hours available in the English language in Wales. Those days have gone, but we do have to find other ways of putting on these programmes.

But another matter is the concern about changes to the management board of the BBC that’s already been mentioned where—as we already heard from Lee waters—Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were represented on that upper level of management. It’s a retrograde step that we only have one controller for the nations and the regions. It weakens Wales’s voice and I’m very concerned about the implications that it pushes Wales aside. There’s no doubt about that.

Now, the BBC has a name, unfortunately, for being a body where the centre is king. Yes, of course, a great deal of drama is produced in Cardiff. There has been growth in the presence of the BBC in Manchester, but that’s not all that’s important. The BBC has to develop a much more devolved attitude, respecting independence within these islands and empowering the nations, the centre sharing drama with Cardiff. That’s an economic factor that’s to be welcomed, of course, but we need something more than that. I’m looking for something more where the BBC empowers BBC Cymru Wales so that it can serve its audiences.

I do wish the new committee well. It has communication as part of its title. It has very difficult and important work to be done where broadcasting hasn’t been devolved. But we here—to conclude—need to reflect the interests and the views of the people who have elected us that the BBC should be able to reach its potential of being the real national broadcaster of Wales because, at present, despite the talent and the commitment of excellent staff, it’s falling short.