Recommendation 35

HM Government Acknowledged

Agree We agree that malicious disinformation poses a serious threat to perceptions of the neutrality of aid workers and relief operations, damaging community acceptance, restricting humanitarian access, and increasing risks for aid workers. The World Service remains the world’s most trusted international news service. The BBC shapes the global information environment through its role as a provider of impartial accurate news. Through high quality and investigative journalism, it also exposes and debunks the misinformation, disinformation and harmful narratives that malign actors, hostile states and others produce internationally. It is not the case that the Government’s efforts to counter disinformation are undertaken “primarily through its support of the BBC World Service” as para 70 in the Report suggests. The World Service is editorially and operationally independent of government. Therefore, the BBC World Service’s engagement on disinformation is not an HMG-directed tool. The FCDO cannot and does not direct the BBC World Service to focus on specific issues including attacks on aid workers and IHL. The Government values the independence and the work of the World Service. In 2025–26, the Government awarded a grant funding uplift of £32.6m (31%) for the World Service. The uplift comprised (a) £27m non-ODA provided by HMT and (b) £5.6m from the FCDO ODA budget. This pushed final allocations for that year up to £54.5m non-ODA; £82.5m ODA, marking £137m in total. This is a significant increase in an exceptionally tight fiscal situation, clearly demonstrating the importance that the Government places on the role of the World Service. The World Service is part-funded through ODA. Its funding is a mix of ODA and non-ODA, in line with OECD-DAC rules. The World Service makes a significant contribution to development goals around the world. The Sustainable Development Goals include Goal 16, the right to press freedom and information. The World Service provides accurate and trusted information to populations living under authoritarian regimes and in countries with low/no media freedom (74% of their audience). The World Service also provides emergency lifeline services. The BBC began airing lifeline programmes in 1994, when a new Kinyarwanda-language service began in response to the Rwandan genocide. This service has been stood up in recent years in Myanmar, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, providing vital safety and security information, and information about humanitarian aid availability in conflict situations. The UK uses its permanent seat at the UN Security Council to condemn disinformation, information manipulation, and incitement to violence against humanitarian personnel and their premises and assets. UNSCR 2730, which the UK co-sponsored, encourages member states and the United Nations system to take appropriate action to address the increasing threat of disinformation campaigns and misinformation that undermine trust in United Nations and humanitarian organisations and put humanitarian personnel at risk. We recognise the importance of supporting our humanitarian partners to understand the threat posed by malicious information and identify appropriate responses. In Sudan, the FCDO recently funded a programme that works with humanitarian actors to promote greater understanding of these trends and inform cohesive action. Outcomes from this work are currently informing policy and future funding decisions. Separately, the FCDO has a long history of countering disinformation, with malign information operations having been used, including by Russia, for over 100 years. The FCDO has developed and increasingly deployed tools to counter information operations and disinformation with a growing focus on acting against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) networks that threaten the UK’s national security and that of our partners, specifically Ukraine. We have provided written evidence to FAC as part of their inquiry into disinformation diplomacy, where we set out our approach in more detail. The written evidence is due to be published shortly.