BBC Parliament


BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that showcases parliamentary content from across the United Kingdom. It broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd. When none of these chambers are sitting, the channel does not broadcast, and its feed is given over to a simulcast of the BBC News channel.
As of January 2022, the channel had a typical weekly peak of approximately 120,000 viewers, during Prime Minister's Questions, representing a monthly reach of 5.41% of UK TV households and 0.06% overall share.

History

, the first director-general of the BBC, wanted to broadcast Parliament on radio from the BBC's founding in 1922, but the government rejected the idea, as it did proposals from MPs during the 1920s and 1930s. During the Attlee government, a committee led by William Beveridge found that broadcasting parliament would be harmful.
A 1966 proposal to experiment with television broadcasts was defeated by one vote, a 1972 proposal by 26 votes, in 1974 by 25 votes, and in 1975 by 12 votes.
A one-month experiment in broadcasting parliament on radio began on 9 June 1975, and MPs on 16 March 1976 voted to continue. Permanent radio broadcasts from the House of Commons began on 3 April 1978, and from the House of Lords on 4 April. The 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry was among the important events broadcast live and through the 1980s, ad-hoc live coverage would be broadcast on BBC Radio 4s VHF frequencies with television broadcasts generally restricted to coverage of the Budget, with the audio feed accompanied by a live shot of Big Ben.
Television coverage of Parliament began in January 1985 when cameras were allowed inside the House of Lords and television coverage of the House of Commons began on 21 November 1989.
In 1991, United Artists Programming initiated a trial project to provide highlights of debates from Parliament in a programme called Yesterday in the Commons to cable networks across the UK. The trial was deemed to be a success and this led to United Artists Cable launching a full time service, The Parliamentary Channel, on 13 January 1992, to provide live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament. It also aired full live coverage of the September party conference season.
In 1998 the channel was purchased by the BBC and was relaunched on 23 September 1998 as BBC Parliament. This followed the launch three years earlier of a Digital Audio Broadcasting, from the Crystal Palace transmitting station, which had offered is a relay of events in Parliament. This audio service became a relay of BBC Parliament when the channel launched, and continued until the DAB radio service was closed down on 14 November 2000.
Due to capacity limitations on the digital terrestrial television platform, now known as Freeview, from launch until 15 October 2002, the channel ran as "audio only". Then on digital terrestrial from 14 October 2002 until 13 November 2006 the channel was only able to broadcast a quarter-screen picture. After receiving "thousands of angry and perplexed emails and letters", not to mention questions asked by MPs in the House itself, the BBC eventually found the bandwidth to make the channel full-screen. Viewers were advised to retune their TVs or set-top boxes to receive the full-screen version of BBC Parliament.
Until 2008, BBC Parliament was unique amongst the BBC channels in being broadcast using non-BBC facilities, with ITV's Millbank Studios in Westminster supplying the engineering and playout facilities. Production, editorial and journalism were, however, maintained by the BBC.
The previous idents, also based on a Big Ben clock motif, ran from 2009 to 2016. This replaced the channel's previous identity which was first introduced in 2002.
BBC Parliament was taken off the air during the 2012 Summer Olympics on Freeview in post-digital switchover areas to enable BBC Three to broadcast 24 hours a day. The BBC had done the same during the 2008 Summer Olympics as it used the space to provide an additional BBC Red Button option for Freeview users.
BBC Parliament HD has been confirmed as launching from 20 October 2021 and rolling out across various platforms at different times right up to the end of 2022, the standard definition service will continue on Freeview. This has been the case since 10 December 2013 when BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC News, CBBC, and CBeebies began high definition simulcasts.
On 5 September 2016 BBC Two began broadcasting BBC Parliament during BBC Two's overnight downtime. However this was short-lived and has subsequently been discontinued.
On 14 October 2016, the channel received a new look and new idents, its first revamp since 2009. The channel's current identity went live on Monday 10 October 2016 with refreshed music and idents based on clock workings, with colours and images derived from the flags and assemblies of the British home countries and the European Parliament.
In July 2018, the BBC announced that the output on the channel was to be cut back, discontinuing all programming produced for the channel other than parliamentary coverage, and closing the channel entirely during summer months when Parliament and the devolved assemblies are not sitting. The move has been criticised by many including the former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. In October 2018, the BBC announced that it had shelved these plans.
From 26 July until 31 August 2021, for the first time BBC Parliament simulcast the BBC News channel during a parliamentary recess. This replaced the loop of highlights from the previous Parliamentary session. Starting to broadcast the BBC News Channel during the three major recesses was part of a range of cutbacks to the channel which saw the channel focus only on live and recorded coverage from Westminster and the devolved chambers. Coverage of the House of Lords and Select committees was also reduced. The channel's wider political coverage ended at this point. This saw the channel end its mostly live coverage of party conferences, its broadcasts of the BBC's national political shows, its Sunday lunchtime simulcast of C-SPAN and repeat of Question Time all finished, as did all archive programming. The bespoke highlights programmes The Day in Parliament and The Week in Parliament and all other programming made for the channel also ended at this point.
In April 2022, BBC Parliament began broadcasting in high-definition, initially only on the Virgin Media platform, BBC Parliament in HD came to Sky and Freesat in February 2023.
Following the death of Elizabeth II, the channel broadcast continuous coverage of the four days of Queen Elizabeth's lying in state.

Programming

Regular programming

Whenever the House of Commons is sitting, BBC Parliament carries the chamber live without interruption, with any simultaneous House of Lords sitting being shown in full later the same day and the following morning, often in sections that fit around the sittings of the Commons. The House of Lords is broadcast live only on days when there is no House of Commons sitting scheduled. BBC Parliament also provides full, recorded coverage of the House of Commons' second chamber Westminster Hall during weekends, when they will also broadcast selected evidence sessions from different select committees of the House of Commons.
Whenever both Westminster chambers are in recess, but a devolved assembly is constituted, the channel will provide live coverage of its work, while during Westminster sessions, coverage of the devolved assemblies usually takes the form of highlights at the weekend of the previous week's main debates and business.
Thus, when taken together with both live and recorded coverage from the other bodies it covers, BBC Parliament's schedule is dominated by direct broadcasts of the legislative and political institutions, whether they be plenary, quasi-plenary, or in committees that affect British public life.

Election night

In the event of one of the devolved nations producing their own results programme on election night, normally the first Thursday in May, BBC Parliament will usually broadcast this telecast to the whole of the United Kingdom. On election night for the 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections, BBC Parliament aired BBC Scotland's result night coverage. A few days afterwards, it would also broadcast a replay of election night coverage from BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. In 2024, the channel aired the network coverage as broadcast as seen on the BBC News Channel due to the channel now carrying the BBC News Channel when none of the UK's Parliaments and Assemblies are sitting.
BBC Parliament had also carried BBC Scotland's coverage of both the 2011 devolved assembly elections and Scottish Independence Referendum. In March 2011 BBC Parliament simulcast BBC Wales's results coverage of the nation's devolution referendum.

Original programmes

Until July 2021, BBC Parliament often broadcast its own original programmes. They were either scheduled or used to fill gaps between the billed programmes, especially when live coverage of a legislative chamber ended before the next programme was due to start. The programmes covered a variety of political and parliamentary subjects, including:
  • A to Z of Westminster – A series of short programmes presented by BBC Parliament researchers explaining some of the more common aspects of parliamentary protocol.
  • Britain's Best Buildings – Only the episode that features the Palace of Westminster was broadcast, usually edited down into short segments that focused on one specific feature of the palace.
  • Conversations – Conversations with political figures about their lives and careers, with Parliamentary Correspondent Sean Curran.
  • Election File – Short summaries of previous general election results, including short bursts of the BBC's original television coverage.
  • In House – A new strand of programmes that replaced A-Z of Westminster in 2011. The programmes were similar in function to their predecessor series, seeking to explain some of the strange procedures that occur in Parliament.
  • Laws and Ladies – A topical chat show, featuring a panel of peers discussing the political issues of the day. Peers featured included Baroness Boothroyd, Baroness Knight of Collingtree and Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde.
  • Laying Down the Law – A standalone programme that explained the parliamentary stages a bill must go through to become an Act of Parliament.
  • MP Too! – A series of short programmes that looked back at some eighteenth and nineteenth century Members of Parliament who were more famous for their work outside of the House of Commons or House of Lords.
  • Speaker's Lectures – A series of lectures initiated by John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, from 2011 to 2019. To mark the centenary of the Parliament Act 1911, the lectures covered some of the main political figures of the century.
  • Village Idioms – Short examinations of modern-day idioms that were coined in Westminster, including 'reading the Riot Act' and 'flogging a dead horse'.