MPs are to launch a fresh inquiry into the future of local news across the UK.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has launched a call for evidence as it prepares to examine what can be done to “maintain and protect” local journalism.

The inquiry will consider the operation of the market for local journalism and how that is affected by increasing competition from social media and public service broadcasters, particularly the BBC.

It will also look at the impact of the 2019 Cairncross Review into the future of news provision in the UK, in which Dame Frances Cairncross recommended the launch of a new body to oversee ‘public interest news’ which would be independent of the media industry.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ruled out the idea the following year, claiming it would amount to “inappropriate government interference with the press”.

In her report, Dame Frances also called for an expansion of the BBC local democracy scheme, an investigation into whether the BBC website has gone beyond its remit, and greater regulation of the tech giants.

Other topics to be examined in the new inquiry include how the Government can support local news outlets to develop sustainable business models, the role social media plays in local journalism and whether partisan and hyper-partisan news outlets are disrupting local news production.

DCMS Committee chair Julian Knight, pictured, said: “It is clear that the market for local news journalism has shifted considerably over the past two decades.

“The need to know what is going on in your area is as great as it ever has been, arguably greater, but there is a very real challenge in how to deliver that.

“Local news organisations increasingly face competition from social media despite moving their own titles online.

“How can we maintain and protect the type of journalism that reports what your council is doing, coverage that is essential to local democracy?

“We’re asking what more needs to be done to make local news journalism sustainable and what form that support should take.”

The Committee is inviting written evidence by Thursday 31 March 2022.