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Written question asked by Julian Lewis (Conservative) on Tuesday, 4 February 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 10 February 2025 (named day). It was answered by Hamish Falconer (Labour) on Monday, 10 February 2025 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

BBC Monitoring and BBC World Service: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on how much and what proportion of the annual budgets of the BBC (a) World Service and (b) Monitoring Service are funded by FCDO; and what discussions he has had with the BBC on preventing cuts in those services.

Answer

The Government provides approximately one-third of the funding for the BBC World Service, with the remainder funded from the BBC Licence Fee. The BBC are operationally and editorially independent and set the budget for the World Service. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided £104.4 million of grant funding to the World Service in 2023/24, the most recent year for which there are published audited accounts.

FCDO Ministers engage routinely with the BBC on the World Service. The BBC discussed their plans for the World Service in 2025/26 with the FCDO, as part of the Spending Review process.

HMG does not provide any funding for BBC Monitoring.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
28444
Session
2024-26
Related items
BBC Monitoring: Finance
Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Finance BBC World Service Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office BBC Monitoring
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk