EIGHTH REPORT
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has agreed to the following Report:
THE REPORT AND ACCOUNTS OF THE BBC FOR 1997-98
Introduction
1. In 1997-98, for the first time, the receipts of
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from the television
licence fee rose to over £2 billion.[1]
This is more money than the Government would raise by an increase
in the basic rate of income tax of 1 per cent.[2]
The BBC's public expenditure each year amounts to more than twice
the total annual expenditure of the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport.[3]
2. Since its establishment as a public Corporation
in 1927, one of the fundamental principles of the BBC, now enshrined
in the Agreement with the Secretary of State under which the BBC
operates, is that it "shall be independent in all matters
concerning the content of its programmes and the times at which
they are broadcast or transmitted and in the management of its
affairs".[4]
Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman of the BBC, told us that he thought
that "Parliament values the independence of the BBC as much
as the BBC values it itself."[5]
3. Yet the BBC's very independence, combined with
the money which it raises from the public through the licence
fee, carries with it an obligation to account for its activities
to licence fee payers and to Parliament.[6]
Last year, Sir Christopher Bland proposed to this Committee that
we take evidence from the BBC on a regular basis, with the BBC's
Annual Report as the basis for discussing the BBC's performance,
as "part of our attempt ... to make the BBC properly and
effectively accountable to Parliament and the licence payer".[7]
Since we had already planned to undertake an extended inquiry
into the Multi-Media Revolution in the first half of 1998, during
which we received evidence on two occasions from witnesses from
the BBC, we decided not to take up the suggestion last year.[8]
This year, we did so. We took evidence on Tuesday 20 October from
Sir Christopher Bland, Sir John Birt, the Director General of
the BBC, Mr Rupert Gavin, the Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide,
Mr Will Wyatt, Chief Executive of BBC Broadcast, Mr John Smith,
the BBC's Director of Finance, and Ms Patricia Hodgson, the BBC's
Director of Policy and Planning. We are grateful to them for their
evidence.[9]
We comment later on the value of their evidence and this inquiry
in enhancing the accountability of the BBC.
1 Q 1; Report and Accounts of the BBC for 1997-98, July 1998, p 60. Back
2 Tax Ready Reckoner and Tax reliefs: Pre-Budget Report Publications, HM Treasury, December 1997, Table 4. Back
3 The
Department's total planned expenditure for 1998-99 is £885
million, Department for Culture, Media and Sport Annual Report
1998: The Government's Expenditure Plans 1998-99, Cm 3911,
April 1998, p 16. Back
4 Copy
of the Agreement Dated the 25th Day of January 1996
Between Her Majesty's Secretary of State for National Heritage
and the British Broadcasting Corporation,
January 1996, Cm 3152, sect 2 (1). Back
5 Q
71. Back
6 See
HC Deb, 21 October 1998, col 1234. Back
7 See
Fourth Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, The
Multi-Media Revolution, HC (1997-98) 520-II, p 247; Q 1. Back
8 HC
(1997-98) 520-II, pp 174-187, 228-247. Back
9 See
p xviii for a memorandum from the BBC reported to the House but
not printed. Back
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