JOURNALISTS AT BBC PARLIAMENT CHANNEL

Early day motion 304, tabled 11 July 2016 by Helen Goodman (Labour). Signed by 46 members.

That this House congratulates all those who are employed in producing content for the BBC Parliament Channel for doubling its viewing figures over recent years; appreciates the hard work that goes into providing live and recorded coverage of the parliaments and assemblies across the UK and the European Parliament, together with the production of a range of original programmes and curation of the BBC archive exploring parliament and politics; regrets that the commitment of the BBC journalists who have worked hard to achieve this success is not being properly recognised by BBC management; notes that staff with comparable editorial responsibilities on BBC News Channel or BBC World are categorised as Broadcast Journalists on Grade 7 of the staffing structure, whilst their equivalents working on BBC Parliament are counted as Broadcast Assistants on Grade 5; believes that staff at BBC Parliament deserve equal status and recognition as their counterparts producing equivalent output; and calls on BBC management to value the commitment of its staff by recognising their skills and re-grading them accordingly.

Signatures by party: Scottish National Party 20, Labour 17, Independent 2, Liberal Democrat 2, Conservative 1, DUP 1, Labour/Co-operative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Social Democratic and Labour Party 1.