The Review of the BBC Royal Charter
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
1. The BBC's Royal Charter (the Charter) and
the associated Agreement between the BBC and the Secretary of
State for Culture Media and Sport set out the rules under which
the BBC operates—they are the BBC's constitution. The current
Charter was granted on 1 May 1996 and runs to 31 December 2006.
The renewal process provides an opportunity to consider the BBC's
future and how it serves licence fee payers. The Government, working
through the Privy Council, are responsible for drawing up the
Charter. Parliament has no formal role (although a debate on the
terms of the Agreement is, by convention, held in the House of
Commons).
2. The current Charter Review process began in
December 2003 when the Government published its first consultation
paper. This was followed in March 2005 by a Green Paper "Review
of the BBC's Royal Charter. A strong BBC, independent of government".
Since then an independent panel chaired by Lord Burns, the BBC,
the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport
(the House of Commons Committee), and the Office of Communications
(Ofcom) have all separately published reports on the future of
the BBC (table 1 provides a chronology). A White Paper setting
out the Government's proposals is expected to be published by
Christmas.
3. We were appointed on 2 March 2005 just before
the Government published its Green Paper which put its proposals
for the future of the BBC out to consultation. We were established
to extend parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's proposals.
We have focussed on whether the Government's proposals will secure
its expressed aim of "A strong BBC, independent of government".
We issued a call for evidence on 9 March 2005. Between March and
July we took oral evidence from 33 separate panels of witnesses.
We have drawn on earlier consultations and publications as well
as the oral and written evidence submitted to us.
4. Our inquiry has been extended. In spring 2006
we will report in more detail on, amongst other things, the role
of the BBC in the nations and regions, the BBC World Service and
the broadcasting of sport and religion. We intend to take evidence
from the Secretary of State on the White Paper in the new year.
5. The membership of the Committee is set out
in Appendix 1, and our Call for Evidence in Appendix 3. We received
valuable written and oral evidence from the witnesses listed in
Appendix 2. In the course of our inquiry we travelled to Germany
and while within the United Kingdom we visited BBC Bristol and
we took evidence from S4C and BBC Wales in Cardiff. We wish to
put on record our warm thanks to all those who have assisted us
in our work.
6. Our Specialist Adviser for this inquiry was
Professor Richard Collins, Professor of Media Studies at the Open
University. We have been extremely fortunate to benefit from his
expertise and enthusiasm, which have contributed enormously to
our work.
TABLE 1
The process so far
| 11 December 2003 | The Government published its initial consultation document: "Review of the BBC's Royal Charter". Consultation ran to 31 March 2004.
|
| 18 September 2003 | Lord Burns was appointed to advise the Secretary of State on the Charter review process.
|
| April 2004 | As part of its first statutory quinquennial review of Public Service Broadcasting Ofcom published its first phase review of Public Service Television Broadcasting.
|
| May 2004 | Phillip Graf published his independent review, commissioned by the Secretary of State, on BBC online services (the Graf Report).
|
| 15 June 2004 | The Secretary of State appointed an independent panel to work with Lord Burns (the Lord Burns Panel).
|
| July 2004 | The Government published the results of the initial consultation and their quantitative and qualitative research: "What you said about the BBC".
|
| July 2004 | The BBC published its own blueprint for reform: "Building Public Value".
|
| July—December 2004 | The Lord Burns Panel ran a series of 13 informed seminars on the main issues for Charter Review.
|
| September 2004 | Ofcom published its second phase review of Public Service Television Broadcasting: "Meeting the digital challenge".
|
| October 2004 | Professor Patrick Barwise and Tim Gardam published their two independent reviews, commissioned by the Secretary of State, on the BBC's new digital television and radio services.
|
| 1 December 2004 | The Lord Burns Panel published its first report summarising the major themes of the debate so far: "Emerging Themes".
|
| 8 December 2004 | The House of Commons Committee published a report focusing on the BBC's future scope and remit, funding mechanism and governance and regulation: "A public BBC".
|
| 28 January 2005 | The Lord Burns Panel published its final advice to the Secretary of State.
|
| 8 February 205 | Ofcom published its third phase review of Public Service Television Broadcasting: "Competition for Quality".
|
| 2 March 2005 | The Government published a Green Paper consultation document: "A strong BBC, independent of government" (the Green Paper). Consultation ran to 31 May 2005.
|
| 9 March 2005 | House of Lords Select Committee on BBC Charter Review was appointed.
|
| 24 May 2005 | The BBC published its response to the Green Paper: "BBC Response to A strong BBC, independent of government".
|
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