Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

I want to ask about something a little bit narrower and more prosaic. The submissions contain a number of specific proposals on charter renewal, one of which relates to the BBC selling advertising or using paywalls. I am not immersed in this myself, but as a viewer, a listener and a reader, I would say that my instinct would be to recoil from that a little bit. However, I am curious about whether you think that there are any such models that the BBC could use in ways that do not rub up against the expectations of what it ought to be. Is there any way in which those models could be legitimately used?

There is also a proposal to include in the BBC’s remit the responsibility to promote economic growth. In relation to its generation of content, its skills and its investment capacity, there might be an argument for giving the BBC an economic remit, but is there a danger that that would feed into its content and editorial choices instead of its being seen merely as a statement of how it creates and stimulates economic activity in broadcasting?

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

Do any of the other witnesses have any views on those questions?

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

I worry that we are still understating this. Can any of us imagine the furore that we would be in the middle of at the moment if the BBC were creating non-consensual sexualised images of people, including children, in the way that X and xAI’s products are creating them? The gulf in the way in which we regulate the different parts of what is now a single media landscape is just extraordinary.

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

Good morning. For the purpose of today’s meeting and the rest of the inquiry, I draw attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I am an associate member of the National Union of Journalists.

On charter renewals, all the witnesses have talked about BBC Scotland having a greater level of autonomy—Professor Happer mentioned that, and Professor Beveridge talked about the idea of having a federal BBC. There is a range of scenarios that we could get into. There is a spectrum with regard to the extent to which we want Scotland’s distinct identity in the BBC to be expressed and the different ways in which it could be expressed.

I remember making similar points in the run-up to the 2014 referendum—that feels like at least a generation ago now. At that time, I talked about a way of separating the question of the BBC’s status from the constitutional debate. I do not think that I used the phrase “federal BBC”, but I said that, if decisions about the charter and changes to the BBC were subject to co-decision making by the nations of the UK or of these islands, you would have a multinational broadcaster, even in the context of Scotland in the union, and it could continue to exist and serve the different nations even if Scotland became independent.

If we were to go down the route of having greater autonomy or a federal BBC, would a change to the Scottish Parliament’s wider role in relation to media regulation be required? Could we have a federal BBC with Ofcom’s responsibilities still being entirely reserved, for example? Does the debate need to be wider than the BBC when it comes to the role that Scotland and its governance structures would have in shaping the media landscape?

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

A broadcasting commission.

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

So it would not carry out some of the functions of the current BBC, but the political decision making by ministers and Parliament would perhaps be separated out.

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

I am thinking about all this in the context of where we are and how the wider landscape has changed. Decade after decade for almost a century, we have been having these debates about the BBC charter, its renewal and so on. In the early part of that period—and certainly through the 1950s and the decades when I was growing up—the BBC was a dominant beast in the media landscape in both its economic activity and its agenda setting. However, that is not the case any more—the BBC is, in some ways, swimming against the tide. I am in danger of mixing my metaphors too much, but its dominant position is, if not over, then certainly ending.

Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Scottish Broadcasting

Meeting date: 8 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

It is about supply, too.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 6 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

Clearly, those need to be paid for during that year, but can they not be budgeted for over a longer period?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Meeting date: 6 January 2026

Patrick Harvie

I agree.

Seòmar agus comataidhean