CHAPTER 2: The Role of the Chairman
5. The Chairman of the BBC is a very different
job from what is was before the inception of the BBC Trust at
the start of this year. Before the Trust was established the BBC
was governed by a Board of Governors who were in very close contact
with the mangers of the BBC. The Chairman of the Governors was
the Chairman of the Corporation. The BBC Trust has been given
new roles and responsibilities and its separation from the Executive
Board has been emphasised.
6. Article 10 of the new Royal Charter states
that there is no longer a formal Chairman of the BBC "The
Chairman of the Trust may also be known as the Chairman of the
BBC. In view of article 8, this is an honorary title, as the members
of the BBC will never act as a single corporate body, but only
as members of the Trust or Board to which they belong."
7. The fact that the BBC will never "act
as a single corporate body" means that the Chairman and Director-General
will no longer stand together representing one organisation (despite
the seemingly contradictory statement in article 8 that "the
Corporation that is the BBC shall comprise all the members of
the BBC Trust and the Executive Board"). This is a radical
change and one that concerns us.
8. When he gave evidence to the House of Lords
Select Committee on BBC Charter Review in 2005, the former Chairman
of the BBC Gavyn Davies, said that in order to protect the independence
of the BBC "The people in the trenches need to know that
when they get into trouble from the Government and its press officers
their Directors of News, the Director-General and Chairman will
support them as long as they are broadly in the right and will
give them cover for their actions".[1]
He also said that "the strength of the system was that we
[the Chairman and the Director-General] could stand together at
a time like we saw in 2003 against Government pressure".[2]
We note that the new Royal Charter has been drafted in such a
way as to prevent the Chairman of the BBC acting in the way that
Gavyn Davies saw as vital to protecting the independence of the
BBC.
9. The Chairman of the BBC Trust now has regulatory
responsibilities and is much further removed from broadcasting
decisions than his predecessors. These changes took shape under
Michael Grade who felt they were necessary to protect the Corporation
from becoming subject to outside regulation. However, it seems
it was the changes he made to his own job that helped persuade
Michael Grade to leave before his contract expired. In the e-mail
he sent to BBC employees on the day of his resignation Mr Grade
said "I was faced with the choice of getting back into programming
or 'governing' the BBC from a distance. Those of you who know
me will understand just what an effort of will it has taken for
me, as Chairman of the Governors, not to look at the overnight
ratings every day, not to engage in idle programming chit chat
with the brilliant creatives who are currently taking BBC television,
radio and on line to new heights of quality—and so on."[3]
Michael Grade's own words suggested that the new job would attract
a different type of applicant and it did. The new Chairman, Sir Michael
Lyons, is not a journalist or a broadcaster. His experience is
in local government administration and public sector reform.
10. The new governance arrangements and the wording
of article 10 of the Royal Charter bring into question who is
ultimately responsible for the BBC's programming decisions. Sir Michael
Lyons told us that it was not his job "to defend the BBC
in all circumstances" (Q 322); and that he could not
envisage a situation when he would ever ask to view any BBC output
before it was transmitted (p 57). However he also stated that
he was "unequivocally the Chairman of the BBC." We agree
with Sir Michael's own assessment that "there is no
doubt that this is a complex arrangement" (Q 322).
11. The Chairman of the BBC Trust has a specific
remit to represent the licence fee payer. We wonder whose remit
it is to represent the BBC's own interests when they differ from
those of the licence fee payer? Would Sir Michael be able
to defend the BBC as robustly as Gavyn Davies did if similar events
were to occur under his watch?
12. We recommend that efforts should be made
to ensure that there is greater clarity about the role of the
Chairman. The Select Committee on BBC Charter Review recognised
that the proposals for the reform of the governance of the BBC
would result in confusion. The Government chose not to change
them and so the problem remains. The Government and the BBC may
contend that the situation is clear but for those on the outside,
including the licence fee payers, more detail is needed. It
should be clear whose job it is to represent the BBC itself as
distinct from the licence fee payer, what it means to represent
the licence fee payer and why "the Chairman of the BBC"
is only an honorary title.
13. The changes to the role of the Chairman were
bought into focus just after we finished taking evidence for this
report. On 9 July the BBC received its first-ever fine for an
editorial failure from Ofcom. This followed the revelation that
in November 2006 Blue Peter faked a competition winner after technical
problems stopped real callers getting through. On 18 July 2007,
following industry-wide revelations about "faked phone-ins",
the BBC revealed new details of six shows in which production
staff posed as viewers or listeners, or invented fictitious winners.
Also in July the BBC was heavily criticised after it was found
that a trailer for a documentary about The Queen, produced for
the BBC by the independent production company RDF, had been misleadingly
edited and interpreted. These events combine to mean that the
BBC is facing serious challenges to its trust and reputation.
14. In light of these events the Director-General,
Mark Thompson, was asked to appear before the BBC Trust to explain
what action management intended to take to tackle the issues raised.
Sir Michael Lyons was not present at this meeting but participated
by telephone because he was honouring a speaking engagement in
New Zealand. Following the meeting the Trust issued a public statement
in which it said:
"The primary responsibility for ensuring the
culture of the BBC properly reflects the requirements of a public
institution which exists on the basis of trust rests with the
senior management team. We have underlined that and asked the
Director-General with his Executive Board Directors to review
the management structure with a view to strengthening the BBC's
editorial controls and compliance procedures to ensure these are
robust in all output areas."[4]
15. It went on to state that:
"We are not ready to draw a line under the editorial
failures reported to us today. The Trust has requested detailed
reports through its Editorial Standards Committee on all the editorial
incidents, including those relating to the documentary programme
about HM The Queen. We have also requested information on any
disciplinary action undertaken by the Director-General and a full
explanation as to whether any of these matters should have come
to light during the Director of Vision's initial audit following
the Blue Peter episode. Finally, we have requested new performance
and disciplinary measures be considered for breaches of editorial
standards.
"When we have received the Director-General's
final report in the autumn we will consider if any additional
and separate measures are necessary. Once the Director-General's
action plan has been fully implemented we will carry out an independent
review to satisfy ourselves of a distinct improvement in the BBC's
attitude to safeguarding the public's trust."
16. The Trust and its Chairman have thus acted
very much as a regulator. The public face of the BBC in this crisis
has been the Director-General. It is Mark Thompson who was made
available for interviews and Mark Thompson who had to answer for
the BBC's actions and defend it against attack. The BBC Trust
statement (above) illustrates a profound change in responsibilities
by stating that "The primary responsibility for ensuring
the culture of the BBC properly reflects the requirements of a
public institution … rests with the senior management team."
This underlines the Trust's own emphasis on its role as a regulator.
The effectiveness of the Trust as a regulator, and how its regulatory
duties work alongside those of Ofcom, will be seen later in the
year once the Director-General has given his final report. We
question whether it is consistent that management are responsible
for "ensuring the culture of the BBC properly reflects the
requirements of a public institution" when the BBC Trust
is responsible for representing the interests of the licence fee
payers.
1 First Report of Session 2005-2006, House of Lords
Select Committee on the BBC Charter Review: The Review of the
BBC 's Royal Charter, Volume II: Evidence, HL Paper 50-II,
page84. Back
2
Ibid, page 88. Back
3
BBC press release, 28/11/2006, Michael Grade resigns as BBC
Chairman. Back
4
BBC Trust statement on 'BBC Editorial Standards, Controls and
Compliance', 18 July 2007, http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2007/editorial_standards.html Back
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