MPs 'deeply troubled' by BBC World Service funding uncertainty

A committee of MPs have said they are "deeply troubled" by uncertainty over the government's future funding for the BBC World Service.

The government provides about 30% of the budget for the World Service, which reaches more than 300 million people a week and is "a jewel in the crown of the UK's soft power", according to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

However, its "prominence is being diminished by poor governance and short-sighted funding decisions", the committee's chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said.

The current funding agreement between the BBC and the government expires at the end of this month and there isn't a new one in place.

"The PAC was deeply troubled to learn that the BBC still does not know how much the government would fund the World Service for the coming year," the committee said as it published a report into the service on Friday.