Frequently Asked Questions

When is the programme broadcast?

The Westminster Hour goes out on Sundays on BBC Radio 4, from 10pm to 11pm. If you miss the programme, or any of the interviews and features in it, you can catch up with them by going to our website. There, you can find out more about the items we broadcast and links to related organisations, as well as listening again via your computer.

Where is the programme broadcast from?

We normally broadcast from the BBC studios at Westminster, within a stone's throw of the Houses of Parliament.

The programme goes on the road each September and October, broadcasting live from the party conferences in resorts like Brighton, Blackpool and Bournemouth.

Who have you interviewed?

In over 350 programmes, we have interviewed most members of the Labour cabinet, including the Prime Minister twice. On 6 February 2005, we interviewed Tony Blair about government plans for asylum and immigration.

Click here for more details of the interview

We have also interviewed most Conservative and Liberal Democrat spokesmen, as well as the Northern Ireland and nationalist party leaders and heads of the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

How many people listen to The Westminster Hour?

The latest figures from RAJAR, which measures radio audiences, show that an average of 650,000 people listen each week to the programme. The Westminster Hour is the most listened-to radio programme in Britain in its time-slot on a Sunday night.

What is the Sunday Supplement?

It is the name we use for the last fifteen minutes of The Westminster Hour, intended to provide a change of pace from the rest of the programme. In this slot, we have had features as varied as Steve Richards talking about famous by-elections, commentator Simon Heffer discussing society's ills and historian David Cannadine assessing the rise and fall of the oratory of Winston Churchill.

When is your website updated?

We aim to put all the new items on the website within an hour of the programme coming off air at 11pm on Sunday nights, though sometimes the material is available quicker.

I am having problems listening to an interview or report?

You can find assistance about listening to audio files and details of the software you need on the BBC Radio audio help page

Can I listen to the programme when I am not in the UK or within reach of a radio?

Yes, The Westminster Hour is streamed live as it is broadcast. Then, at 11pm, the audio service goes back to providing the previous week's programme for just a few minutes, before re-loading the whole of the show just broadcast.

Do you provide transcripts?

Unfortunately we do not have the resources to transcribe all our programmes. For major interviews, these are sometimes available and we do highlight this on the website.

When there are no transcripts available, is there any other way of being able to hear an old interview or feature?

Most interviews and features broadcast since June 2004 are available on our website, together with some older features. These can be found using the "search" facility on the top right hand side of the page.

For other items, we are sometimes able on a limited basis to provide CDs - especially when they are needed, for instance, for academic research. Contact us to see if this is possible.