MPs to question new BBC Scotland Director
January 6, 2025
By Colin Mann
The Scottish Affairs Committee of the UK House of Commons 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 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 2024, 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 in 2024 .
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.
Also appearing with Valentine at the evidence session on Wednesday January 8th are Louise Thornton, Head of Multiplatform Commissioning, BBC Scotland and Margaret Mary Murray, Head of Gaelic Services and Inclusion, BBC Scotland.
Previous Committees held sessions examining the work of BBC Scotland in December 2018 and July 2021
The previous committee published a report into Public Broadcasting in Scotland in 2023.