1 Access to the BBC's information
1. The Comptroller and Auditor General's value for
money examinations of publicly funded organisations other than
the BBC are carried out under the National Audit Act 1983. The
Comptroller and Auditor General's reviews at the BBC are carried
out under an agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport and the BBC. Under that Agreement the BBC Trust
can ask the Comptroller and Auditor General and others to conduct
value for money reviews. The reports go to the BBC Trust and are
subsequently laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State.
We have previously made clear our concerns about these arrangements,
which give the BBC Trust the final say as to which subjects are
to be examined, and by whom. It also decides what information
is made available, since the C&AG does not have full rights
of access at the BBC. In contrast, under the National Audit Act,
the Comptroller and Auditor General decides which subjects to
examine, and has full rights of access to information necessary
for the conduct of his examinations.[2]
2. In carrying out the review of Radio Production
Efficiency at the BBC, the National Audit Office, on behalf of
the Comptroller and Auditor General, asked the BBC for a breakdown
of the staff and presenters element of the costs for a selection
of BBC radio programmes. In principle, the BBC was willing to
share information with the National Audit Office, but considered
that it was constrained by its responsibilities under the Data
Protection Act and confidentiality clauses in the BBC's contracts
with some presenters.[3]
3. The BBC would only provide the National Audit
Office with data on individual presenters if the Comptroller and
Auditor General was party to a Data Transfer Agreement. Our understanding,
however, is that under the transfer agreement discretion as to
what information would be provided to the National Audit Office,
how it could then be processed and what could be included in a
report to Parliament would have rested with the BBC. The Trust
failed to recognise the responsible way the Comptroller and Auditor
General, an Officer of the House of Commons, handles sensitive
information in his wider work, including that relating to national
security. Quite rightly, the Comptroller and Auditor General did
not wish to accept such constraints.
4. The BBC explained that in seeking such an agreement
it was acting on legal advice. The result, however, is that in
a review firmly focused on whether the BBC is using public money
efficiently, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and now this
Committee, have been unable to make a complete and independent
assessment of what is driving the BBC's costs. This is a direct
consequence of the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General
is not able to exercise the statutory rights of access he has
for value for money work under the National Audit Act 1983 for
his work at the BBC.[4]
5. In conducting his review of the BBC's Radio Production
Efficiency, the Comptroller and Auditor General needed access
to information to understand the main cost drivers for BBC 'drive-time'
(4 o'clock in the afternoon to 7 o'clock in the evening) and breakfast
programmes, which had significantly higher costs than commercial
competitors. For work carried out under the National Audit Act,
the Comptroller and Auditor General has access to information
even if the audited body might be exempt from releasing it to
others under the Freedom of Information Act.[5]
2 Committee of Public Accounts, Nineteenth Report
of Session 2007-08, BBC Procurement, HC 221 Back
3
C&AG's Report, The efficiency of radio production at the
BBC, presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport, as an unnumbered Command Paper, 5 February
2009, para 54 Back
4
Qq 20-21 Back
5
Qq 22, 35 Back
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