Lord Chelwoodasked Her Majesty's Government:
By how much they anticipate that the grant in aid to the BBC World Service for making and broadcasting programmes will fall in real and in actual terms during the next two financial years, and whether they will compensate in advance for these falls before the next triennial review.
§ The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Lord Trefgarne)The grants in aid for the BBC World Service for the three-year period 1988/89 to 1990/91 were set in the 1987 public expenditure survey at the level necessary to carry out the prescribed broadcasting output and sustain the 1981 audibility improvement programme. They provide for an actual increase of about 5.5 per cent. in each of the next two financial years for current expenditure on broadcasting. The grants in aid for the next three-year period, 1991/92 to 1993/94, will be set in the 1990 public expenditure survey.