3 The Committee in context
Relations with other committees
16. The Secretary of State told us in July 2006 that
there were many ways in which the Department could add value to
the work of other departments, to "make a health pound worth
more and an education pound worth more".[13]
The complementary nature of the Department has been evident in
the regular submission by Government of cross-departmental memoranda
to our inquiries; we, in turn, have worked in conjunction with
other Committees where there was a common interest. Both of our
major broadcasting inquiries, for example, into analogue switch-off
and into new media and the creative industries, elicited a joint
submission from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and
the Department of Trade and Industry. We have referred above to
the oral evidence taken jointly with the Trade and Industry Select
Committee on Ofcom's draft Annual Plan.
17. We have also formed part of a collective effort
by select committees to monitor preparations for the London 2012
Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The present Secretary of State
at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been designated
as the minister with primary responsibility for overseeing the
Games project. It therefore makes sense that this Committee should
take the lead in scrutiny by select committees. We have already
held two series of evidence sessions examining preparations for
the Games, one in the autumn of 2005 and another in late 2006,
and we have recently published a report. We recognise, however,
the interests of other committees, given the impact of the Games
on transport networks, the supply of skills in the construction
industry, local regeneration, and other areas. Our recent report
on the Games has drawn on work by both the Transport Committee
and the Scottish Affairs Committee. We anticipate that a joint
approach can, given liaison between Committee Chairmen and between
relevant staff, continue to offer the most thorough and effective
scrutiny by select committees of preparations for the London 2012
Games. Committee staff are also in regular contact with staff
of the London Assembly scrutiny committees in order to share knowledge.
18. The Department's remit is not one which is dominated
by legislative or regulatory proposals from the European Commission.
The draft Audio Visual Media Services Directive, however, which
seeks to amend the Television Without Frontiers Directive, is
directly relevant to our inquiry into new media and the creative
industries. In particular, the Commission has proposed the regulation
of not just "linear" television broadcasting services,
i.e. programmes delivered to a schedule fixed by a broadcaster,
but also "non-linear" services, delivered on demand
to the consumer at a time of their choosing. Shortly before a
key Council of Ministers meeting in November, the DCMS minister
with responsibility for broadcasting (Shaun Woodward MP) wrote
to the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee setting out
his proposed negotiating position at the forthcoming Council.
Liaison between the two Committees enabled us to obtain a copy
of the letter and to tailor our questioning accordingly. We regard
this as a good example of a co-ordinated approach.
19. Our inquiry into the built heritage revisited
some of the ground covered by the former Committee on the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister in its report on the role of historic
buildings in urban regeneration.[14]
The potential for historic buildings, whether residential, municipal
or commercial, to serve as focal points for local communities,
was of common interest to both committees, as was the role played
by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment,
funded jointly by the two Government departments. The former ODPM
Committee reached the conclusion that the imposition of VAT on
the repair of historic buildings but not on new-build projects
was a clear disincentive to the maintenance and re-use of historic
buildings.[15] The Government
response rejected the ODPM Committee's findings on VAT. Our inquiry
explored the same ground and found the Government's response unsound;
we therefore followed up by reiterating and strengthening the
ODPM Committee's conclusion, citing what we saw as flaws in the
Government response.[16]
House of Lords Select Committee on Broadcasting,
Media and Communications
20. The House of Lords agreed, on 29 November 2006,
to a recommendation by the House of Lords Liaison Committee that
a select committee on broadcasting, the media and communications
should be established for the remainder of this Parliament.[17]
When speaking to the motion to set up the Committee, the Chairman
of Committees in the Lords said that "the Liaison Committee
[of the House of Lords] is firmly of the view that Lords Select
Committees should complement and not duplicate the work of the
Commons and that their remits should be cross-cutting rather than
departmental". He has also acknowledged this principle in
correspondence with this Committee's Chairman. We welcome this
recognition that the respective committees' work should not overlap,
although we wait to see how the Lords Committee's intentions will
work in practice. We are aware that accountability to a multiplicity
of select committees can impose pressure on key witnesses such
as the BBC, or on other less well-resourced bodies. We also note
that the Lords appear to have carried forward their initiative
without seeking to consult this House.
Working methods
21. The majority of our work is conducted through
oral evidence sessions, approximately once weekly when the House
is sitting. The benefits of formal oral evidence are that sittings
are almost invariably held in public; a record is taken and is
made available to the public, normally within days; and the session
is a formal proceeding in Parliament and affords protection to
witnesses for statements that they make. Almost all of our sessions
have taken place at Westminster, although we held one very productive
session in March 2006 at the offices of Liverpool City Council,
when senior officials from Liverpool and Manchester City Councils
gave evidence on the value of heritage assets in regeneration.
22. One witness at the session in Liverpool described
it as "incredibly refreshing" that the Committee "had
come out of London" and urged us to do so more often.[18]
There are two good reasons for doing so: travel away from Westminster
as a Committee helps to extend the regional perspective which
we gain as constituency Members; and the Committee can increase
public awareness of what select committees are and what part they
play in parliamentary scrutiny. Besides the evidence session in
Liverpool, held in public, our visit to Lincoln in January 2006
(also to discuss the potential for local regeneration through
use of the built heritage), which consisted largely of a guided
walk around key public sites in the city's historic centre, attracted
considerable interest from the local press. We are in no doubt
that increasing the visibility of select committees around the
UK can assist people in understanding the work of the UK Parliament
and can help to communicate its activity to the world outside,
an aim articulated by the Select Committee on Modernisation of
the House and endorsed by the House itself.[19]
23. Our public work is complemented by private visits,
such as those to Wembley National Stadium in January 2006, the
site of the Olympic Park in February 2006, the British Library
in March 2006, and the British Museum in December 2006. The Committee
has also travelled overseas, to Berlin (in December 2005), Beijing
and Seoul (in May 2006) and Athens (in December 2006). The visits
to Seoul and Athens allowed us to gain direct knowledge of legacy
use of Olympic venues; and the visit to Berlin enabled us to meet
all the main players in the project to move from analogue to entirely
digital broadcasting of television services. The Berlin area was
the first in the world to complete such a move.
24. Our inquiry into new media and the creative industries,
triggered by the rapid emergence of new technology and new media
platforms for the distribution of creative content, led us to
attend a number of displays of new communications technologies
by industry leaders and broadcasters including BT, Microsoft and
BSkyB. A further meeting is planned with Channel 4, to see a demonstration
of planned Video on Demand services. Meetings with Samsung, Nexon
Corporation, and TK Media in Seoul also gave us a glimpse of the
possibilities for future media consumption in the UK.
13 Q1, evidence taken before the Committee on 25 July
2006, on the DCMS Annual Report and the responsibilities of the
Secretary of State, HC 1551-i, Session 2005-06 Back
14
HC 47-I, Session 2003-04 Back
15
The Role of Historic Buildings in Urban Regeneration, HC
47-I, Session 2003-04, paragraphs 112 to 114 Back
16
Protecting and Preserving our Heritage, Third Report of
the Committee, Session 2005-06, HC 912-I, paragraphs 174 to 177 Back
17
HL Deb, 29 November 2006, cols. 756-9 Back
18
Ms Toms, Head of Cultural Strategy, Manchester City Council, Q150,
HC 912-III, Session 2005-06 Back
19
Connecting Parliament with the Public, First Report of
the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons,
HC 368, Session 2003-04; see also HC Deb, 26 January 2005 Back
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