Public Bodies Bill [Lords]

I would love to, but I am conscious that from now on there is no more injury time. The Select Committee concluded that"““S4C provides value for money.””" This is no sweet little niche cultural project that is propped up out of the kindness of taxpayers' hearts. The channel is already cutting costs, and has overheads of only 4.5%, compared to 12% at the BBC. It is popular and well watched. According to the Select Committee, its"““share of the viewing audience during peak times””" is holding up ““remarkably well””, and viewing figures for key programmes compare favourably with those for their English-language equivalents. On top of all that, the channel supports 2,000 Welsh jobs and contributes £90 million to the Welsh economy. This is not an institution in desperate need of top-down reform. The Bill, however, will impose catastrophic changes that will not even comply with its own aims. Ministers talk the language of sustainability, but they refuse to guarantee S4C's future beyond 2015. They talk about accountability and transparency, but this move will take S4C's funding out of direct Government control and hand it over to an arm's-length body. They talk about maintaining S4C's independence—where have we heard about the independence of the media before?—but they have announced no change in the law on BBC Trust responsibility for every penny of the licence fee. The whole plan was drawn up on the back of an envelope by people with no knowledge of S4C or the language that it promotes, who wanted to cut costs without worrying about the consequences. S4C deserves better. I am not saying that we cannot have a debate about improving S4C. Indeed, we appear to have been engaging in such a debate for the best part of the last year, and I think that that is right, as is the independent review. The first step, however, is to remove S4C from the Bill altogether. I will vote for its removal as soon as I get the chance, and I hope that the whole House will join me in doing so.