CHAPTER 5: The Chairman of the Executive
Board
56. One specific aspect of the new Royal Charter
that adds to the confusion about the role of the BBC Chairman
is the provision that allows the Executive Board to be chaired
by a non-executive rather than the Director-General (article 29).
This is at the discretion of the BBC Trust. If this provision
were to be used the BBC would have two non-executive chairmen.
57. When the Select Committee on BBC Charter
Review took evidence from Greg Dyke he described the likely relationship
between the Chairman of the Trust and a non-executive Chairman
of the Board as "warfare"[14].
The BBC Committee went on to recommend that "there should
be one Chairman of the BBC, i.e. the Chairman of the BBC Board,
and that the Executive Board should be chaired by the Director-General".[15]
58. We took evidence from the current Director-General
Mark Thompson on this matter. He told us that "it is unlikely
in practice that the BBC Trust will, at any point I can foresee,
wish to have a non-executive Chairman of the Executive Board,
not least because … they would then lose the ability to appoint
the Chief Executive and would only be able to approve the appointment
of the Chief Executive" (Q 424). This is an interesting
point. If the Director-General is the chairman of the Executive
Board then (under article 29 of the Royal Charter) the Trust is
the appointing body. However, article 30 states that if the Director-General
is not the chairman then the Executive Board is the appointing
body and the Trust only has the power of approval over the appointment.
59. Given that the existence of two non-executive
chairmen within the BBC is likely to cause confusion and conflict,
and in light of the fact that the Trust would lose the power of
appointment of the Chief Executive, it is questionable why the
Government felt that provision needed to be made for a non-executive
Chairman. We therefore recommend that the default position
should be that the Director-General is the chairman of the BBC
Executive Board.
14 House of Lords BBC Charter Review Committee, First
Report 2005-2006, Q 378. Back
15
Ibid, para 80. Back
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