Conclusions and recommendations
BBC World Service funding
1. We welcome the
undertaking by the Director of News at the BBC to maintain the
budget for the World Service up until the end of the current licence
fee period, and his assurance that the next two years of funding
will use the 2014-15 budget as a baseline. We urge the BBC to
announce detailed funding allocations for 2015-16 and 2016-17
as soon as possible, to enable not just the World Service but
also other divisions of the BBC to plan over the longer term.
(Paragraph 7)
Governance
2. We have clear differences
with the BBC on governance of the World Service. We respect the
arguments made by the Director of News in defence of the new arrangements,
but it remains to be seen whether they will indeed safeguard the
distinct nature of the World Service. We regret that the BBC has
moved from a position where the Director of the World Service
was a very senior person within the organisation to one where
the World Service has no direct voice on the Executive Board or
the Management Board, and where the Director is just one of many
competing voices on the News Group Board which will take decisions
on how the World Service should meet its objectives and targets
under the Operating Licence. We do not depart from the reservations
which we have expressed in the past about the transfer of funding
responsibility and the consequential changes in governance, and
we recommend that the BBC should at least allow for direct representation
of the World Service at the Management Board—and preferably
the Executive Board—on a temporary basis, for five years,
while the new funding arrangements for the World Service settle.
(Paragraph 16)
The role of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
3. We will continue
to speak up for the BBC World Service and its role in projecting
the values and interests of the UK across the world. We urge the
Foreign Secretary to do the same. We are encouraged to hear that
frequent contact between the BBC and the FCO is likely to continue.
We were pleased to hear the Foreign Secretary say that he would
always "hold the BBC's feet to the fire" in protecting
the interests of the World Service. We urge him and his successors
to honour that commitment. (Paragraph 21)
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