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BBC: Charter

My Lords, I do not have a date for that at the moment, but it is an important part of the new constituent arrangements and will take place before the trust comes fully into operation. It is part of the transitional arrangements. I cannot give the noble Lord a precise timetable. I am trying to indicate to the House the process of overlap. With the Green and White Papers, draft charter and agreement, debates and Select Committee reports before us, we are all familiar with the key issues and the Government’s proposals. That is why I do not propose to go into a lot of detail in my opening statement today. It would be both a waste of time for the House and presume too much for me to spell out what informed contributors to this debate know all too clearly. However, I need to set the scene. On governance, the charter and agreement address the conflicts of interest that were thrown up by a system in which the BBC governors were designated both defendant and jury, by abolishing the governors and replacing them with two new, formally constituted bodies: the trust and executive board. The charter and agreement confirm the BBC as a broadcaster of scale and range and charge it with continuing its role as a trusted guide bringing audiences the benefits of new technologies. They also confirm the range of purposes and characteristics set out in the Green Paper. The charter and agreement confirm a number of Green Paper policies, including: every BBC service having a service licence; the public value test as a means of approving new services, and the trust’s role in carrying out the public value test; as well as the Secretary of State’s procedural veto. The charter and agreement address the need for wider market protection by reiterating the need for a new fair trading regime that will cover the BBC’s publicly-funded services as well its commercial services, and setting out the need for a new fair trading complaints procedure. I should say a little about the proposed role for the BBC in assisting the process of digital switchover and funding the help. I acknowledge that there are criticisms of the proposals in this area. I can assure the House that we carefully considered all the arguments, including the Select Committee reports, and the specific one on digital switchover. The Government remain convinced that their decision is the right one. The issue is how to make switchover happen in a way that is both systematic and fair, particularly for the most vulnerable. As I said earlier, the BBC has consistently led from the front when it comes to technological change, and if we want the BBC to continue in its role as a trusted guide to new technologies, it is only natural for us to look to the BBC to play an important role supporting the switch. It is a broadcasting cost, and the licence fee has always been a way of delivering broadcasting policy objectives. For that reason, it is fully appropriate for the BBC to lead on the switchover process and for help schemes to be paid for out of licence fee money. On the subject of switchover, there has been some speculation about the role that the Government see for Channel 4 in the new digital Britain. We believe that Channel 4 has a vital role to play, complementing the BBC, in the provision of public service broadcasting, and, as we said in the Green and White Papers, we are exploring a range of options for specific forms of help to assist Channel 4. I have kept my opening remarks to the minimum in providing a context for this debate, all too well aware that there are many distinguished contributors, all of whom know these issues thoroughly. However, the success of the new arrangements, built on the new BBC trust and executive board, will be determined by a consensus, not only among licence fee payers but also among industry, that the BBC is indeed helping to make the UK environment one where both it and commercial broadcasters can flourish. We believe that the charter and agreement provide the framework for the BBC to deliver that outcome. I beg to move. Moved, That this House takes note of the drafts of the BBC’s new charter and the agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the corporation.—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)