Formal Minutes
Monday 4 April 2011
Members present:
Richard Ottaway, in the Chair
Mr Bob Ainsworth
Mr John Baron
Sir Menzies Campbell
Ann Clwyd
Mike Gapes
| | Mr Frank Roy
Sir John Stanley
Mr Dave Watts
|
Draft Report (The Implications of Cuts to the
BBC World Service), proposed by the Chair, brought up and
read.
Ordered, That the draft
Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.
Paragraphs 1 to 44 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 45 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraphs 46 to 61 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 62 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 4, to leave out from
"settlement" to the end of the paragraph, and add "While
we support increased spending on international development, we
raise concern when a small fraction of this increase comes at
the expense of a national institution such as the World Service.
Our figures show that just 0.35% of DFID's budget would be enough
to compensate for the Government's planned cuts to the World Service.
Given this, the case for DFID funding being reallocated to support
the World Service is overwhelming. We recommend that the Government
re-prioritise its spending plans to allow cuts to the World Service
to be prevented, at the expense of the Department for International
Development.". —(Mr John Baron.)
Question put, That the Amendment be made.
The Committee divided.
Ayes, 2
Mr John Baron
Sir Menzies Campbell
| | Noes, 6
Mr Bob Ainsworth
Ann Clwyd
Mike Gapes
Mr Frank Roy
Sir John Stanley
Mr Dave Watts
|
Amendments made.
Another Amendment proposed, in line 10, to leave
out from "Service." to "We" in line 11. —(Mike
Gapes.)
Question put, That the Amendment be made.
The Committee divided.
|
Ayes, 4
Ann Clwyd
Mike Gapes
Mr Frank Roy
Mr Dave Watts
| | Noes, 4
Mr Bob Ainsworth
Mr John Baron
Sir Menzies Campbell
Sir John Stanley
|
Whereupon the Chair declared himself with the Noes.
Another Amendment made.
Another Amendment proposed, in line 11, to leave
out from "Service." to the end of the paragraph.—(Mike
Gapes): —Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Paragraph, as amended, agreed to.
Paragraphs 63 to 74 agreed to.
Paragraph 75 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraphs 76 to 79 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 80 read.
Amendment proposed, in line 13, to leave out from
"arrangements" to the end of the paragraph, and add
"We recommend that instead of transferring funding responsibility
of the World Service to the BBC licence fee, with the subsequent
possible weakening of Parliamentary scrutiny, the World Service
continues to be funded from the direct FCO Grant-in-Aid. In order
to mitigate the effect that this will have on the FCO's efforts
to meet its spending review settlement, we further recommend that
funding for the World Service, both from 2013-14 and in subsequent
Spending Reviews, is found from a comparable reduction in DFID's
budget.".—(Mr John Baron.)
Question put, That the Amendment be made.
The Committee divided.
|
Ayes, 1
Mr John Baron
| | Noes, 7
Mr Bob Ainsworth
Sir Menzies Campbell
Ann Clwyd
Mike Gapes
Mr Frank Roy
Sir John Stanley
Mr Dave Watts
|
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraphs 81 to 83 read and agreed to.
Summary amended and agreed to.
Resolved, That the Report, as amended, be the Sixth
Report of the Committee to the House.
Ordered, That the Chair
make the Report to the House.
Ordered, That embargoed
copies of the Report be made available, in accordance with the
provisions of Standing Order No. 134.
Written evidence was ordered to be reported to the
House for printing with the Report, together with written evidence
reported and ordered to be published on 9 March.
[Adjourned till Wednesday 27 April at 2 pm.
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