HC Deb 15 January 1997 vol 288 c317
14. Sir Jim Spicer

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the BBC World Service about reductions in foreign language services in the next financial year. [9246]

Mr. Hanley

No proposal for language service closures has been submitted or is under discussion with this Department.

Sir Jim Spicer

I thank my right hon. Friend for the increased grant to the World Service of the BBC this year and, incidentally, I thank him and my other right hon. Friends in the Foreign Office for the increased grant to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Does he understand that the BBC World Service holds a unique position and that we all take pride in its work? Will he give an undertaking that, in the years ahead when we still constitute the Government, we will increase that grant, year on year?

Mr. Hanley

My hon. Friend is right—the BBC World Service is an important national asset and the Government have a strong record of support for the service. Real-terms funding has grown by 53 per cent. since 1978–79. In foreign language services, 43 languages excluding English are currently being used, compared with 39 language services in 1979 and 37 in 1989. Therefore, the 3.1 per cent. increase in cash terms over 1995–96 was a vote of confidence in the World Service. We also increased the money from the know-how fund and paid extra money towards the three relay stations. I believe that the World Service is now well suited for its needs and should be able to carry out its expansion within current financial plans.

Mr. Eastham

Is the Minister fully satisfied with some of the services in the far east? There has certainly been some curtailment in regions such as China—regions that we would greatly like to influence and with which we will have to trade in future. Should not there be an expansion in such areas so as to increase United Kingdom influence?

Mr. Hanley

As I have said on several occasions, we have expanded the service—indeed, the new transmission arrangements in Thailand will help to spread the service still further. I believe that the service is still growing. Obviously, it must look at each service according to the demand for that service and, therefore, we cannot guarantee that there will always be the same number of languages, but the recent pattern has been one of expansion. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the service is well received in the far east and I was pleased recently to announce an extra service so that people in northern China could hear the service even better.