Memorandum by the BBC
BBC COVERAGE OF
THE HOUSE
OF LORDS
In addition to coverage on news merit across
all BBC News outlets, the BBC offers the following dedicated
coverage of the work of the House of Lords.
BBC Parliament broadcasts complete sessions
of the House of Lords the day after each sitting. These are fully
captioned with names, designations and contextual information.
Questions and Statements are routinely shown later the same day,
after the end of Commons business, and again on BBC Parliament
overnight. Selections are also made from Thursday's Debates to
repeat at later dates on the channel.
BBC Parliament is broadcast on satellite, cable,
Freeview and online. The channel reaches approx 450,000 viewers
at home per week and approximately 1.4 million viewers per
month. These numbers mark very strong growth in the audience to
the channel over the last two years.
The work of the Lords is reported on a daily
basis in dedicated programming on BBC Radio Four in the half hour
programme Today in Parliament, in short form as part of the Today
programme at 06:45 and as a half hour programme, Yesterday
in Parliament, at 08:30 (Long Wave and digital). It is also
reported at length in The Record, a half hour programme of record
shown on BBC Parliament at 23:00 and at 09:00 the next
day, and on the overnight service of the BBC News channel and
BBC One/Two.
Two weekly programmes of analysis regularly
review the work of the House of Lords through interview and actuality:
they are the Friday editions of Today in Parliament and The Record.
Today in Parliament has seen its audience figures
rise by 10 per cent over the last year and reaches approx 500,000 in
each edition and 1.1 million listeners over a week. Yesterday
in Parliament at 06:45 shares the large audience reach of
the Today programme.
The BBC shows the proceedings of the Lords live
and fully captioned at www.bbc.co.uk/parliament.
This service has been offered since 2005. It will transfer to
the new BBC portal Democracy Live at launch in the autumn of 2009.
Key features of Democracy Live will be its eight-screen video
wall which will give access to full sessions of the parliaments
and assemblies of the UK and the European Parliament and to a
selection of committee proceedings. Viewers will be able to search
the video archive by political representative, by institution,
by issue and by keywords. The video will be supported by guides
to the devolved political system and to biographies and information
about parliamentary and assembly members. People will also be
able to "track" members' appearances in their respective
institutions.
The BBC believes the new service will appeal
to anyone who has an interest in the people, issues, events and
processes that underpin our democracy.
Peter Knowles
Controller BBC Parliament
1 May 2009
RESPONSES TO
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
FROM THE
COMMITTEE ARE
GIVEN BELOW:
The Committee would, in particular, welcome
responses to the following questions:
OUTREACH
What more could be done to enhance the effectiveness
of the outreach work of the House of Lords/Parliament?
What outreach activities would be most successful
in engaging people with the work and Members of the House of Lords?
What are the strengths of the outreach programmes
of the House of Lords/Parliament?
Is there anything we should be doing differently?
The Parliamentary outreach service launched its
programme of regional workshops and information sessions in July
2008. What has been the impact of this new service? As Parliament's
outreach programme expands, are there any additional activities
that you think should be considered? Where or by what can the
service most add value?
Are there sufficient routes for the public to
make their views known to Members of the House of Lords?
ONLINE COMMUNICATION
AND ENGAGEMENT
Over the past four years, Parliament has made
considerable investment in the use of online communication channels,
including the parliamentary website and social media tools. The
website has been redesigned, services such as bills online have
been enhanced, and other new services like Twitter and Flickr
have been introduced alongside initiatives like www.lordsoftheblog.net.
What has worked well and enabled better engagement
between Parliament and the public?
What else should we be doing to deliver further
improvements?
How would you like to be able to interact online
with Members of the House?
What more should the House of Lords/Parliament
do to embrace social media and Web 2.0 technologies?
Parliament should provide the underlying metadata
(information about the essential data) ie who is speaking and
what they are speaking about, in a joined-up way across Annunciator/web/Hansard.
Permission is sought to allow the embedding of parliamentary
actuality (video) on the BBC's Democracy Live online portal.
PRESS
How can we best encourage media reporting of the
work of the House of Lords?
A principle of communication should be that
this is best done jointly by the two Houses. There are scarcely
any journalists whose interest is restricted to the work of one
chamber alone, so the normal style of communication should be
bi-cameral, except where there are clearly identified reasons
to adopt a uni-cameral approach.
What does the press and media need from the House
to support a goal of fuller coverage of its work?
What measures could the House take to help journalists
to report the work of the House in a fresh and engaging fashion?
Is there demand for a formal induction about the
House of Lords for journalists joining the press gallery?
Is there demand for further easing of restrictions
on the number of parliamentary passes for media outlets?
Parliamentary programmes have sufficient passes
but there is a shortage among political programme teams, some
of which have none.
Is there demand for the House of Lords to provide
a 24-hour media service? How is such an operation provided in
comparable organisations?
The House can consider itself a major source
of expertise and has the potential to further promote this aspect
of its role. Many universities provide a database of expertise
and facilitate access to the people on that list. The way the
universities operate could provide a model, in this respect, to
the House.
BROADCASTING
What has been the effect of changes to the rules
of coverage on broadcasting proceedings of the House?
The more relaxed interpretation of the rules
has been greatly helpful in making proceedings of the House watchable.
More people are now watching and they are watching for longer:
Audiences for BBC Parliament have almost doubled in two years.
There are many factors, but it is certainly a help that the look
and feel of debates is now much closer to the look and feel of
non-parliamentary debate.
It is pleasing to note comments made in the
media observing the greater variety of camera angles in the Lords.
Unrestricted access to the second feed (the
wide shot) of both Houses would be valued by broadcasters.
What has been the effect of changes to the rules
on filming within the precincts of Parliament?
The fixed filming spots (including one in Peers'
Lobby) are useful but more flexibility in allowing camera access
across the estate would be appreciated. Access to the estate is
difficult for film crews: the public rarely gets to see the Palace
as a place of work. I would propose that we re-think the balance
of public/private interest in allowing crews to film interviews
and events around the estate.
How could the House of Lords work with broadcasters
to make footage of parliamentary proceeding more accessible and
engaging for the public?
Lower camera angles would bring debates much
closer to the audience and make the experience of watching the
chamber, from the point of view of the viewer, much more like
the normal televisual experience. In the original project to televise
the Lords, more than 20 years ago, a camera angle from the
third row of Peers' benches gave a much more intimate view of
the chamber which achieved this effect.
Accessibility is also, in part, a factor of
cost: the current licence arrangement sharing the cost between
the broadcasters is a deterrent, especially for small (web-based)
producers and for foreign broadcasters.
What do broadcasters need from the House to support
a goal of fuller coverage of its work?
What has been the effect of the expansion of webcasting?
Video webcasting of committees is especially
helpful to specialist researchers and to journalists. It has enabled
Today in Parliament to cover a wider range of hearings than was
possible before.
Should the House be contextualising coverage of
its proceedings on the web (eg by providing further information
on the Member speaking and the subject of the debate)?
This is already provided by BBC Parliament in
its online service at bbb.co.uk/parliament (running since 2005).
Continuous captioning provides the names of peers and contextual
information. Could Parliament's site take this feed from BBC Parliament?
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