Hundreds of local residents have contacted me about the ongoing BBC Charter Review.
I recognise the value of having an independent broadcaster and believe that the BBC has a crucial role in the British media. Many of its programmes are high quality, informative and interesting. The Charter Review seeks to protect the BBC and ensure that it is able to continue to provide an excellent service.
The mainstream media has changed significantly since the Charter was last reviewed in 2006. Increasingly much more content is now being viewed online through BBC iPlayer, as well as abroad through the BBC World Service. The BBC has to adapt to these changing demands, in order to do so, the Government has announced additional funding for the World Service, worth £85 million from 2017-18.
As a publically funded national institution, it is right that the BBC is scrutinised to ensure that it is providing good value for taxpayer's money. The Government is taking the responses from this consultation extremely seriously, including the significant number of responses generated by 38 Degrees on this issue. The volume of responses is impressive at 190,000, but as a result it will take longer to analyse and process a response. Once this has been completed, the Government will be publishing both a summary of the consultations and its proposals as soon these are available.