The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 23rd March 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how much funding they provided for the BBC World Service in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, and (4) 2022.
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con): Since 2016, the FCDO has provided over £468 million to the World Service through the World2020 programme, funding 12 language services and enhancements to services in Arabic, Russian, Thai and English, to enable digital transformation and counter disinformation.
At last year’s Spending Review, we agreed to provide the World Service with a flat-cash funding settlement of £283 million over 2022-2025. The FCDO also provided an additional £1.44 million in financial year 2022-23 for countering disinformation in Russia and Ukraine, alongside a £2.66 million contribution from the DCMS in 2021-22.
As part of the Integrated Review Refresh, the Government announced it would provide a one-off uplift of £20 million over two years to the BBC to protect all 42 World Service languages, in recognition of the crucial role the World Service plays in supporting UK soft power, projecting UK culture and values overseas and in countering harmful disinformation.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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