Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Chair Profile: Julian Knight Conservative Knight takes the role of Chair having built up copious experience on the Committee as a member since 2016. In this time, he was a strong critic of the BBC – a topic likely to dominate much of the Committee’s time in the next Parliamentary session. The newly formed Committee is made of several ex-ministers and high-profile MPs, including Damian Green and Steve Brine, so Knight will have his work cut out in asserting his position. Knight was elected to Parliament in 2015, representing the previous Liberal Democrat – Conservative marginal of Solihull. Prior to joining the DCMS Committee, he served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee from 2015 to 2017. Though he hasn’t held ministerial roles, he has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary across the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, and HM Treasury during his tenure. Before becoming an MP, Knight worked in journalism, predominantly covering personal finance and consumer affairs at outlets such as the BBC and The Independent. He has consistently taken a strong interest in consumer affairs throughout his time in Parliament, so expect this to feed into his focus as Chair.
Likely Committee Priorities: 1. The future of the BBC: The BBC is short of friends in high places at the moment, with the Government recently questioning whether it is “ready to embrace proper reform to ensure its long-term sustainability”. Unfortunately for the national broadcaster, it won’t get any respite from the DCMS Committee. Setting out his priorities, Knight said the organisation’s future was “far from assured”, adding that an “open conversation” was needed about its future funding model. 2. Online harms: The Government’s flagship online harms White Paper is set to be put on a statutory footing shortly, with an ongoing debate over whether it goes far enough in making the UK the “safest place in the world to be online”, or whether it goes too far in infringing upon free speech. One thing’s for sure, it will come under fierce scrutiny from the Committee. 3. Rollout of broadband: Knight has broadband providers in his sights. The Government has made bold commitments to the rollout of gigabit broadband across the UK – a key feature of the 2019 election campaign - and the DCMS Committee has promised to scrutinise the work of internet providers in “getting broadband done”. 5G is also expected to come under further scrutiny in what is the Committee’s first inquiry of the new Parliamentary session. Cont. overleaf
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