1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd on 25 January 2022.
Rhianon Passmore
Labour
7. What representations has the Welsh Government made to the UK Government concerning the governance of the British Broadcasting Corporation? OQ57513
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:19,
25 January 2022
Llywydd, the Welsh Government will continue, vigorously, to make the case for independent, publicly funded public service broadcasting. With a recently signed tripartite memorandum of understanding in place between the Welsh Government, the UK Government and the BBC, we expect to be fully involved in discussions on the BBC charter.
Rhianon Passmore
Labour
Diolch, First Minister. As a former member of the BBC Broadcasting Council for Wales, I want to declare for the record.
Since the Tories took control of the UK Government in 2010, the BBC's budget has taken an estimated 30 per cent cut in real terms. Now Nadine Dorries and the Tories want to propose a further two-year freeze in the licence fee, and that's equivalent to the entire UK radio budget. First Minister, the cost of the BBC is 43p a day, yet its true cost is immeasurable in public sector duty and global reputation. BBC Cymru Wales has been the key lead media organisation for reporting, analysing and conveying the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales and the Welsh Government and Senedd Cymru response to it.
First Minister, David Dimbleby wrote to The Times last week to suggest that the BBC should consider proposing to the Government a different method for levying its funding, based on the council tax rate bands, and those in band A would pay the most for possession of a tv set and those in band D, the least. First Minister, what is the Welsh Government's view on this and what can the Welsh Government do to defend our BBC against this outrageous act on it by the Tories, which will erode journalism by stealth?
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:20,
25 January 2022
Llywydd, can I thank Rhianon Passmore for her series of very important points? I agree entirely with what she said about the importance of the BBC here in Wales. Ninety two per cent of adults in Wales use the BBC every single week, whether that is for sport, for news or for culture, or in the way in which BBC Cymru supports the Welsh language. And the expansion of the BBC operation in Wales has been integral to the remarkable success of the tv and film industry in Wales over recent years. So, we are absolutely right to defend the BBC on a whole range of fronts: its independence and its public service remit to inform, educate and entertain, and also to defend it from what the Financial Times characterised in Nadine Dorries's announcement by Twitter on a Sunday evening as simply part of Downing Street's plan to distract from Boris Johnson's leadership travails.
Now, I think that the David Dimbleby contribution is an interesting one. I'm not myself an unambiguous supporter of the licence fee; it may well be, as John Whittingdale, another Conservative MP and former Minister said just this week, that it still is the least worst way of raising funds for the BBC, but it is a regressive tax; it falls most on those who have the least, and a graded system of the sort that Rhianon Passmore set out may be a way of combining a form of licence fee with greater fairness in the future. But those things need to be thought about carefully and by a Government that has the core qualities of the BBC as something it wants to celebrate, not simply putting the BBC in the firing line because of its own extensive difficulties.
