My Lords, in the absence of two of the United Kingdom’s leading courtroom advocates, it is left to me to make the case for Amendment 31. The rationale for the amendment—and for a number of others to which I and other noble Lords put our name—is very simple. It is based on the
fact that we have here, as your Lordships all know, a state-funded broadcaster: the BBC. It seems to us to follow that, in a democracy subject to the rule of law, its independence from government must be honoured and seen to be respected. At the same time, for very obvious reasons, they have got to have a relationship with each other, and it seems to us that the nature of that relationship is not properly defined.
With many others, not least the Lord Speaker in his previous incarnation, I have felt that establishing the BBC by royal charter, using the royal prerogative, is, in the reality of the world we live in, no guarantee of its independence. Indeed, it is rather the opposite, since we all know that, over the years, there has been a whole series of deals completed in smoke-filled rooms—not least in the case of money, where Governments of all persuasions have seemed to take Dick Turpin as their role model.
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In the context of this matter, it seems relevant and germane that there has been over recent years and months—we have had a lot of it in this Chamber—debate about press regulation, and the Press Recognition Panel and its relationship to statute and the use of the royal prerogative. At heart, the essence of what we are talking about is the same, and the principles that apply seem to me the same—which is why we hope that the Government will accept the logic, and hence the desirability, of what is proposed in these amendments.
The purpose of this amendment is to point out the flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings of the existing arrangements and to draw attention to the need for a clear, simple public set of properly legally founded rules of engagement for this relationship. In so doing, it sets the ground rules for the parties and gives the rest of us, both in Parliament and more widely in the country, a benchmark against which we can judge the propriety and sense, or otherwise, of what goes on. I very much hope that the Government will be able to indicate that they feel sympathetic—indeed, supportive—of this approach, which seems to me a very fundamental one in a society of the kind in which we are living. I beg to move.