MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee say it was wrong to end Government funding for BBC Monitoring in 2013.
A new report published by the Committee says the move should now be reversed.
The BBC has now proposed a restructuring to make up for a £4 million shortfall.
Almost one in three posts at the BBC facility in Caversham will be lost, while numbers overseas will be reduced by approximately 20%. It’s proposed BBC Monitoring will move out of Caversham in favour of a central London location.
“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office needs to be the eyes and ears of the UK abroad, picking up signals and undercurrents which help to indicate where the tide is flowing, spotting where threats to the UK’s security and other interests may surface, and helping to form policy on how the UK should handle those threats,” says the Committee, adding that a reduction in its capability would not be in the interests of the government.
The Committee says BBC Monitoring, which translates and analyses news sources from around the world, is highly valued by Government.
If the government was to take on the work itself it would risk losing the expertise within BBC Monitoring.
A spokeswoman for BBC Monitoring said: “We welcome the Committee’s support for BBC Monitoring’s work. We are confident we can continue to meet the Government’s needs after our restructure, which we think is essential to equip BBC Monitoring for the twenty-first century.
“We will continue to honour the licence fee agreement from 2010. However, if the UK Government decided there would benefits in offering additional direct funding to BBC Monitoring, we would be happy to consider this.”
