Committee to question new Director of BBC Scotland
6 January 2025
The Scottish Affairs Committee will question the new Director of BBC Scotland, Hayley Valentine, and other senior executives in a one-off session on BBC Scotland’s work. This will be Hayley Valentine’s first appearance in front of a UK or Scottish Parliamentary Committee since she took up the post in November 2024.
The cross-party Committee could ask questions about the new Director’s ambitions and plans for the role, and how these fit into the BBC’s larger strategic context.
According to Ofcom, audience satisfaction with the BBC in Scotland has historically been lower than in other parts of the UK. The Committee may explore the reasons behind this and the role of dedicated Scottish radio and television output in addressing this, including recent changes to news programming on the BBC Scotland TV channel.
In December, the Committee met with the Gaelic media service MG ALBA during its visit to Stornoway. Following this, Members might examine the BBC’s support for, and provision of, Gaelic language content. This may include concerns about the funding available to produce this content, in the context of the decade-long freeze to MG ALBA’s core funding. The Committee may also explore the impact of statutory protections for minority language programming introduced in UK legislation last year.
The Committee may also choose to focus on the BBC’s Charter Review, which is expected to begin later this year, as well as the findings of the Mid-Term Review conducted by the previous UK Government.
Witnesses
at 09:30am
- Hayley Valentine, Director, BBC Scotland
- Louise Thornton, Head of Multiplatform Commissioning, BBC Scotland
- Margaret Mary Murray, Head of Gaelic Services and Inclusion, BBC Scotland
Further information
Image: House of Commons