Speeches by Nandy.

“In practical terms there is no difference, except that the BBC’s right to exist will no longer be called into question every decade.”

“It is perfectly possible for a future Government to come in and cause enormous vandalism to the BBC, but that is the nature of democracy, frankly. It is not for this Government to determine what a future Government or Parliament decide.”

“We very deliberately took an approach in the Green Paper that was as open as possible and that closed off as few options as possible. I believe that the BBC belongs to the whole nation, and people have to feel that level of ownership. We have just touched on the falling numbers of people who are paying the licence fee.…”

“On the first question about the concessions, I want to be crystal clear with the Committee that we are not going to remove the over-75s concession. That is currently funded by the BBC. We do not have an alternative way of paying for that from Government, so that responsibility will remain with the BBC, to be found out …”

“We are still discussing this with the BBC and others, but I will share with you my initial thinking on this. It is right that the Government continue to appoint the chair, because there has to be some level of accountability through Government back to Parliament. It is not lost on me that, in the many crises that the B…”

“No, I want to be really clear that I have worked with all four of those individuals, and I have no problem personally with any of them. The problem is the system whereby the Government appoint all those post holders to the board itself. One of the ways that we can address that is having workplace representatives on the…”

“I followed the discussion about “Scooby-Doo”—I think it was Natasha who started it—which took up a fair chunk of the Committee’s evidence session. There are fair challenges to the BBC about when it should be competing with commercial broadcasters and whether that is a good use of public money. Instinctively, I am where…”

“The BBC has done some really good research on this. There are certain audiences that it does not reach in particularly large numbers, who do not see themselves reflected in that story—most obviously, young people. By that, I do not mean that young people do not watch or engage with the BBC: I have an 11-year-old who wa…”

“The Treasury and I have had a number of discussions about this, some of which have been very pleasant and some of which have been slightly more robust. I think there is a shared belief across Government, including the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, that the BBC is one of the most important institutions in this coun…”

“Yes, I do, but I think it is a challenge. It is a fair challenge to the Government, and it is also a challenge for us to meet this moment, but I have been really clear that we are determined to do it. The BBC is in a challenging position at the moment. I watched your session with the chair and the new director general …”

“That is one of the options under consideration. You will remember that we committed in the Green Paper to retaining a reformed licence fee. We ruled out a new tax on households, because of the cost of living crisis; we ruled out general taxation, because of the risk of political interference; and we said that there wou…”

“We are looking at a whole range of options at the moment. The director general’s view is that a household levy is much simpler, and it is much simpler, but it is also potentially more regressive. At a time when the cost of living is biting for a lot of people, I think a new tax on households is too challenging to ask m…”

“As I said, there are two main places where that has to happen. First, if we are changing the system through the charter and asking people who were not previously in scope of the licence fee to come within it, it is our responsibility to go out, make the case and win the argument. The second group of people who are resp…”

“I guess that part of the confusion about this is that different people in this debate seem to use the same terms to mean different things. We have ruled out three things: a levy on streaming companies, which I talked about; general taxation, which I think we are clear about; and a new tax on households. That would esse…”

“Except that you get different households, don’t you? You then would be in a situation where—”

“You could still have exemptions, yes, but one of the things that that would catch is that you would have an older person who lives alone and is on a very low income paying the same as a family where you have two very high-income earners and several people watching. I do not think it is the same. Essentially, the proble…”

“We are modelling that at the moment. We do not have certainty about any of these options at the moment.”

“Yes. The streamers can speak for themselves, but I think they would be reluctant to see additional charges on their consumers and additional charges on their businesses.”

“No. You obviously have commercial parts of the BBC that operate in a different way. I share with the BBC leadership a caution around extending advertising across the board to BBC programming, for all the reasons I gave and because of the impact on the ecosystem. I talked earlier about the need to bring the public with …”

“I agree with that. You heard a lot in the evidence session from the BBC leadership about the strong recognition that they have to be more accessible. When they are making great quality content that reflects the lives of broader audiences, those audiences have to be able to find it, which I think is the point that Rober…”