Baroness Twycross (Lab)

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords who have contributed this afternoon. I am slightly disappointed that more people are not here to debate. We do not get very many opportunities to debate community radio, and I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, that this is an interesting area. I commend his role with the hospital radio he mentioned and, at some point, I would love to understand how he managed to make it from being a pirate to being a Member of your Lordships’ House. It is clear from today’s discussion that both sides of the Committee really want to do what we can to secure support for the community radio sector to ensure that it thrives long into the future. These stations are often at the heart of the communities they broadcast to, and we want to do what we can to make sure that they can continue to deliver local content to their listeners. I turn to some of the questions raised, and I apologise if I do not get through all the questions that were raised. I will write afterwards if there is anything I need to pick up. I will look through Hansard and double check that I have covered everything. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, raised the point about hospital radio, and Radio Tyneside moving from being a hospital service to a community radio station. It is a really important point: small-scale DAB is continuing to grow, but there is more to do to give community stations and hospital radio stations more scope to reach communities. As I said, we are keen to support the sector and see it grow. Officials met the Hospital Broadcasting Association in January this year, and when I was briefed, ahead of this debate, we had a discussion about the important role hospital radio plays. It is important for us to note the role of hospital radio stations in a broader context. The noble Lord, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, asked why we are not seeking to relicense, and why we are looking to extend licences. It is a really difficult balance and the risk is that relicensing stations leads them to fold. Stations are required to report to Ofcom, including on their social gain, in their annual returns. The social gain is a continued requirement and a condition of licensing. The CMA, UKCRN and the sector strongly supported this option, which is one of the reasons we have chosen this approach. There was an issue around DAB not necessarily being available and it being difficult for stations to access it sometimes. We agree that there may be a role for new FM community radio licences to help support new stations in areas where DAB is not available or is a challenge to install, but it is not straightforward given the very limited spectrum available for new FM services, and the viability of new FM service stations as a result of the significant market shift to digital listening. Therefore, we felt we should leave it to Ofcom to determine the balance between the demand for community radio services wanting to broadcast and the need for a wide range of services across the UK. This is not the end of the debate, even it was quite a short debate, but this order will ensure that the invaluable work of all these stations is protected and they are able to thrive. We want to foster communities that are home to diverse local media ecosystems. The measures in the Community Radio Order 2025 ensure that community radio can be part of these ecosystems long into the future, contributing to the plurality of choice and to the training of the next generation of radio broadcasters and producers. I am very grateful to noble Lords for taking part in this debate and for your Lordships’ interest in the continued endeavours of community radio services across the UK, and hospital radio as well. I beg to move.