THE new director of BBC Scotland has pledged that more licence fee funds raised in Scotland will be spent on programming produced north of the border.

Figures show just 55 per cent of licence fee funding raised in Scotland in 2015-16 was spent on local programming, such as the hit comedy series Still Game. A sharp decline from the 63 per cent spent the previous year, and compared to figures of 95 per cent for Wales and 74 per cent in Northern Ireland.

In an interview BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon said: “The percentage of the licence fee collected in Scotland I think has to reflect better the amount spent in Scotland.

"I don't want to commit to a figure exactly at the moment, but certainly an increase on what is the case at the moment.”

MacKinnon also addressed claims of BBC bias during the Scottish independence referendum and said it was "regrettable" that BBC Scotland was not more open in defending its journalism during that time.