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Electronic Communications

I begin with two points of solid agreement, I think, between the hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt) and myself. I believe that unlike some of his colleagues, he cares about the BBC and supports the principle of the licence fee. There is a Back-Bench Bill doing the rounds of the Opposition Benches calling for the abolition of the licence fee, which is red meat for some of his more right-wing colleagues, at least five of whom support it. However, I genuinely do not believe that he is in that camp. Also, we agree that Parliament has a responsibility to licence fee payers to ensure that the BBC is adequately funded but never over-funded. We must always strike a balance between playing fair by the BBC, giving it sufficient funding and stability to fulfil its charter purposes, and playing fair by the licence fee payer, ensuring that the licence is both good value and affordable and taking account of the prevailing economic circumstances.