§ Sir John WheelerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to lay an order under section 16(5) of the Broadcasting Act 1990 in relation to independent productions; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerSection 16(2)(h) of the Broadcasting Act requires regional Channel 3 licensees to ensure that in each year not less than 25 per cent. of the total amount of time allocated to the broadcasting of qualifying programmes in their service is allocated to the broadcasting of a range and diversity of independent productions. Under section 16(5) of the Act, I am empowered to specify, by order, the definition of "qualifying programmes" and "independent productions". I hope to lay the draft of such an order before the House later this month.
In drawing up the draft order, I shall have regard to the current voluntary independent production initiative, in which the independent television companies and the BBC are participants, the details of which my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Renton) announced on 28 April 1988. I am, however, minded to make one important change to the current arrangements. Under the 650W voluntary initiative, an independent producer is defined as one in which no broadcaster has any shareholding. Although I accept the need to limit the scope for undue influence which may arise through cross-shareholdings of this kind, I believe that the present requirement is too restrictive and is not in the best interests of the independent sector itself. I therefore propose to permit a broadcaster to have up to a 15 per cent. shareholding in an independent producer, and to apply a similar limit on investment by an independent producer in a broadcaster.
I have placed a more detailed set of proposals in the Library.