On Wednesday in the House of Lords, Roger Liddle, a Labour member created a session entitled BBC World Service: Finances which he opened up with the comment “To ask His Majesty’s Government, following the announcement of the resignation of the Director of the BBC World Service, what assessment they have made of the Service’s finances.” and the Minister who responded for Roger and the other members was Tariq Ahmed. Along with several other members the Bishop of Leeds who is Nick Baines also contributed and his question was very interesting and the response from Tariq is very unclear. All of the discussions can be obtained from here. So the response Tariq made initially to Roger was

Tariq: My Lords, our assessment of and formal agreement with the BBC guarantees the continued provision of all 42 World Service languages. We provide approximately a third of the funding for the World Service, with the remainder funded from the licence fee. Our funding totalled £305 million over the spending review period. The BBC is operationally independent and responsible for setting budgets. The DCMS is currently leading a review of BBC future funding, including that of the World Service, which it is expected to conclude by the autumn.

A little later Nick Baines asked his question and Tariq responded

Nick: My Lords, I notice that the funding agreement with the FCDO runs only until April 2025, which is not very far ahead. Can the Minister tell us whether the Government are considering, at the very least, taking back full funding of the World Service in the longer term rather than leaving it to the licence fee?

Tariq: My Lords, I hear clearly the proposal from the right reverend Prelate, which has also been suggested by the director-general. I accept the premise of his question; that model existed until 2014. It is important that we make full leverage of funding. It is a challenging fiscal environment, but the Government have demonstrably shown that when we need to provide additional funding to the BBC World Service, we do so. The funding review being undertaken by the DCMS provides an opportunity to look specifically at the funding of the World Service.