The Minister said a moment ago that the Minister—in this case, the Secretary of State—must do as the charter says. I remind him that the charter
before last said explicitly that the licence fee may not be used to fund the World Service. After the famous “night raid”, where the BBC was required to fund the World Service from the licence fee, the Secretary of State simply went to the Privy Council and changed the charter. He manifestly did not do what the charter required.