I’m pleased to follow a typically thoughtful contribution from Suzy Davies on this. I think this is a significant moment for devolution because the BBC charter covers an area that is not devolved to this Assembly, and the Wales Bill currently goes out of its way to remind us of that—a little gratuitously, in my view. But, nonetheless, it does show how we are able to work past those difficulties, because it recognises both a role for the BBC and for Ofcom to serve Welsh audiences, and the communities that we represent can see themselves reflected right across the BBC. As the letter from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Karen Bradley, makes clear, this afternoon’s debate will be taken note of by the UK Government in deciding the final form of the charter and the framework agreement that will govern the BBC over the next 11 years. I think there are significant advancements on the previous charter, and I think it’s testimony to the political involvement of this Assembly over the last number of years and, I must say, in particular to a number of Ministers—to the First Minister, who has involved himself considerably in these matters over the last couple of years, and to the current Minister, Alun Davies, and his predecessor, Ken Skates, in engaging deeply. I saw, certainly from my previous involvement in media policy, how these matters have shifted. The involvement of the politicians of Wales was significant in that, despite the constitutional barrier.

So, I’m not going to dwell on the detail of the many welcome improvements; I want to focus instead on some of the areas that I think would benefit from further reflection. There are safeguards within the wording of the charter for this agenda. However, the main barriers to progress, I think, are culture: the culture of the BBC, the culture of the media, and of funding. Old habits die hard. The BBC is not currently serving Welsh audiences properly, not because of a shortage of declamatory statements—we’ve had a litany of those from senior executives over a number of years; they like to show they’re empathetic—but at its heart the BBC is a creatively centralising organisation, and has a deeply entrenched view, throughout its hierarchy, that excellence is best achieved by keeping decision making within the London metropolitan elite. That’s the problem, and I don’t think that the extra safeguards that have been conceded will alter that. It’s easier to change policies than it is to change practice, and, as I say, we’ve had years of assurances from senior decision makers that have not been manifested in decision making around programmes.

The 30 per cent cut we’ve seen in English-language output on BBC Wales between 2006 and 2015 is now widely lamented by the BBC management, and I took Tony Hall at his word two years ago, when he came to Cardiff to say the BBC needed to do more to reflect Welsh life on our screens. I took Tony Hall at his word again when he wrote to the First Minister in May to acknowledge that funding for BBC Wales had reached, quote, ‘unsustainable levels’. And I took him at his word when he wrote to 41 Assembly Members, who’d expressed concern back in May, to reassure us that Welsh programmes would, quote, be ‘an investment priority’ in the new licence fee period. So, for two years he’s admitted there’s a problem. For two years he’s made empathetic noises. But what has he done since saying those things? He’s downgraded the position of the head of BBC Wales, moving Wales further away from decision making, and he’s now slashed another £9 million, on top of the cuts we’ve had over the last 10 years, from the budget of BBC Wales. It shows, doesn’t it, that talk is cheap? But Tony Hall needs to deliver significant investment in Welsh content.

Now, the First Minister and the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee in the last Assembly and the Institute of Welsh Affairs’s respected media policy group have called for the figure of an extra £30 million to be spent on English-language programmes. Now, this figure has not been plucked out of the air, as the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in Westminster seemed to suggest. It’s based on a doubling of the current output of English-language television programmes, which have been cut, and an increase in the tariff that the BBC can pay to independent programme makers and its own output to ensure the quality is high enough to give it a chance of earning its place on the BBC network. Because that’s the key. It is fantastic to have ‘Casualty’ and ‘Doctor Who’ made a short walk from here, but they do nothing to tell the story of Wales on the screens across the UK. And even the future of that production is now in doubt with the creation of an arm’s-length BBC studios at the behest of the Government. The BBC, to be fair to them, have been put in a vice-like position here. The UK Government have made dramatic cuts to the BBC and we are putting extra pressure on them to spend more money in Wales at a time when they have a declining budget. So, I do sympathise.

We do need a stronger role for this Assembly. It is a UK Government decision to appoint a Welsh member of the board—not just the Welsh Government. So, the UK Government, if they are taking note of this debate, need to reflect further on the role that this Assembly may have.

Finally, Llywydd, the draft charter is a real step forward. But, without changes to the way programmes are commissioned and funded, there’s a danger that the cuts will take us a step back, despite the step forward in language. Diolch.