Written evidence from Dr Chris Westcott,
Director BBC Monitoring
BBC MONITORING: ANNOUNCEMENT
OF SPENDING
CUTS IN
RESPONSE TO
THE OUTCOME
OF THE
OCTOBER 2010 COMPREHENSIVE
SPENDING REVIEW
I am writing to let you know that BBC Monitoring
is today announcing spending cuts and proposed post closures in
response to the decision by the Cabinet Office, following last
October's HM Government Comprehensive Spending Review, to cut
£3 million per annum (18%) over two years from BBC Monitoring's
grant of £23.2 million per annum. This follows a cut of £1.4
million by the Cabinet Office in April 2010.
In announcing the cuts to staff today, I will be
saying that regrettably service cuts and post closures are inevitable
given the scale of the cut in funding from the Cabinet Office
and that we are now beginning a period of consultation with staff
on our proposals.
BBC Monitoring proposes to cut £3 million per
annum from its costs by closing 72 posts - about 16%. 18 new posts
would be created.
BBC MONITORING FUNDING FROM THE CABINET OFFICE
| FY 09/10 | FY 10/11
| FY 11/12 | FY 12/13
|
| £24.6 million | £23.2 million
| £21.7 million | £20.2 million
|
* Under the terms of the new BBC Licence Fee Agreement, BBC Monitoring
will be funded by the licence fee from FY 13/14. Until then, the
Agreement states that "The Government will continue to fund
BBC Monitoring at CSR-agreed levels for 2011-12 and 2012-13"
BBC MONITORING: ROLE
AND VALUE
BBC Monitoring supplies news, information, and comment gathered
from open mass media sources around the world. It operates around
the clock to monitor more than 3,000 radio, TV, press, internet
and news agency sources. It then selects vital information; translating
it into English from up to 100 languages from 150 countries, and
delivering it online for immediacy and ease of access.
This extensive and growing range of sources enables BBC Monitoring
to provide distinctive, authoritative and reliable information
and analysis to its Stakeholders (the Cabinet Office, the Ministry
of Defence, SIS, GCHQ, Security Service, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office and BBC World Service) and customers including media organisations,
universities, governments, embassies, multinational companies
and charities around the world.
BBC MONITORING: IMPACT
OF THE
SPENDING CUTS
The cuts to editorial output have been designed to protect coverage
of BBC Monitoring's top geographical and thematic priorities,
such as Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, the Arab world, counter-terrorism
and proliferation. However, there will undeniably be a significant
impact on editorial output on lower priority countriesand themes,
and the resilience, adaptability and responsiveness of BBC Monitoring's
editorial operations.
The biggest impacts will be on coverage of Asia-Pacific, Western
Europe and the Balkans, where BBC Monitoring's entire UK-based
capability would be lost, to be partially replaced by a reduced
international resource. BBC Monitoring will close its Belgrade
office and reduce the number of staff in Nairobi. It will also
be reducing staffing dedicated to reporting on international media
developments, lower priority themes and media reaction to major
news events.
BBC Monitoring is clear that it needs to continue to deliver quality
services to all our Stakeholders and customers. Our aim is to
maintain BBC Monitoring as a going concern; maintain its global
capability; minimise the impact on our priority services; and
continue to invest for the future.
Parliamentarians and their researchers have access to BBC Monitoring's
products and services through the Library pages on the Parliamentary
Intranet.
17January 2011
| 
