BBC Trust

The BBC Trust is the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and aims to act in the best interests of licence fee payers.

The Trust was established by the Royal Charter for the BBC which came into effect on 1 January 2007. The Trust, and a formalised Executive Board, replaced the former Board of Governors.

In summary, the main roles of the Trust are in setting the overall strategic direction of the BBC, including its priorities, and in exercising a general oversight of the work of the Executive Board. The Trust will perform these roles in the public interest, particularly the interest of licence fee payers. — BBC Royal Charter (2006)^[1]

Contents 1 Trustees 1.1 Appointments 2 Remuneration of Trustees 2.1 Expenses 3 The Trust's work 3.1 2009 Editorial Standards Committee report 4 Future of the Trust 5 The Trust Unit 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Trustees

The Royal Charter establishes that the Trust should have twelve trustees, including a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman and a member for each of the nations of the United Kingdom.^[1] The Trust currently comprises:

• Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman, who has held a number of executive and non-executive media and local government positions.
• Dr Chitra Bharucha MBE, Vice-Chairman, a former consultant haematologist.
• Dr Diane Coyle OBE, former Economics Editor of The Independent.
• Anthony Fry, an investment banker.
• Alison Hastings, the Trustee for England and a former regional newspaper editor.
• Dame Patricia Hodgson, a former Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission.
• Rotha Johnston CBE, the Trustee for Northern Ireland and an independent businesswoman.
• Janet Lewis-Jones, the Trustee for Wales.
• David Liddiment, a former Director of Programmes at ITV.
• Mehmuda Mian, a solicitor.
• Jeremy Peat, the Trustee for Scotland and former BBC Governor; an economist.
• Richard Tait CBE, former BBC Governor; a journalism Professor.

Trustees serve for a four year term, after which they may be appointed to a further term.

[edit] Appointments

Appointments to the BBC Trust are made by Queen in Council, on the recommendation of government ministers.

The original members of the Trust were announced in October 2006 by Tessa Jowell, the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport^[2] The Trust was to be chaired by Michael Grade, then Chairman of the Board of Governors. Grade was to be joined by three former Governors: Dermot Gleeson; Jeremy Peat and Richard Tait. However, in November 2006 before the Trust took over from the Governors as the governing body of the Corporation, Grade left the BBC to become Executive Chairman of ITV. Chitra Bharucha, then Vice-Chairman, became the Acting Chairman.^[3]

Sir Michael Lyons was subsequently appointed the first permanent Chairman of the BBC Trust, taking up the position from 1 May 2007.^[4]

The only Trustee to leave the Trust since its formation was Dermot Gleeson. He finished his term on 31 October 2008 and was replaced by Anthony Fry.

In March 2010, the Government announced that former BBC News executive and Ofcom content Board member Richard Ayre would join the Trust, replacing Richard Tait when his term expires on 31 July 2010. ^[5]

[edit] Remuneration of Trustees

The remuneration for BBC Trustees is determined by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and paid for by the BBC. The table below shows the base fees for Trustees during 2008-09. ^[6]

Position	Base Fee	Incumbent/s
Chairman	£142,800	Sir Michael Lyons
Vice-Chairman	£77,005	Chitra Bharucha
National Trustees	£41,070	Alison Hastings (England), Jeremy Peat (Scotland), Janet Lewis-Jones (Wales), Rotha Johnston (Northern Ireland)
Trustee	£35,935	Diane Coyle, Anthony Fry, Patricia Hodgson, David Liddiment, Mehmuda Mian, Richard Tait

The Chairman is expected to spend 3-4 days a week on Trust business, and the Vice-Chairman about 2.5 days. Other Trustees are expected to spend about 2 days a week.

[edit] Expenses

Trustees were subject to severe press criticism in February 2008 after it emerged four Trustees had hosted a group of "opinion formers and stakeholders" at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, at a cost of over £20,000 of licence fee payers' money. The Trust members were vice-chairman Chitra Bharucha, Dermot Gleeson, Jeremy Peat and David Liddiment.

The Trust has also admitted that Sir Michael Lyons, the Trust chairman, claimed £13,000 in expenses between May and September 2007. This included £2,500 in taxi fares – even though he is provided with £25,000 annually towards the cost of a car and chauffeur.

[edit] The Trust's work

In October 2007, the Trust approved the BBC's strategic direction for the next six years, demanding a high quality and more distinctive BBC.

The Trust has approved several new services, including the iPlayer, HDTV and the Gaelic Digital Service, BBC Alba. The Trust denied a proposal to launch a new local video service in late 2008 due to concerns about competition with commercial producers, especially newspapers moving online. The Trust has also recently demanded that the BBC makes more programmes outside of London.

In May 2008 the Trust published its review of the BBC's website (bbc.co.uk), criticising the service for financial mismanagement, including a £36 million overspend. The departure of Ashley Highfield, Director of the BBC's technology department has been linked to the findings of the review. In June 2008, the Trust was highly critical of the BBC's network news reporting of issues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The Trust was heavily criticised in the popular press for its review of the amount the BBC pays for "top talent" and failing to answer whether stars like Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton were worth their large licence fee funded salaries. Ross is thought to earn £6 million each year.

[edit] 2009 Editorial Standards Committee report

In April 2009, the Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) of the BBC Trust published a report into three complaints brought against two news items involving Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.^[7] The report received widespread coverage in the UK and in Israel.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

The complaints included 24 allegations of breaching BBC guidelines on accuracy or impartiality of which three were fully or partially upheld.^[9] The Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk was particularly critical of the ESC report, saying that the BBC Trust is "now a mouthpiece for the Israeli lobby".^[11] An editorial in The Independent said that the report demonstrated "a terrible absence of good judgement".^[12] Michael Lyons' response to the editorial, also published in The Independent, said that it is important to take complaints seriously and to be scrupulously careful about standards of accuracy and impartiality so that the BBC's reputation for fairness and impartiality is maintained.^[13]

[edit] Future of the Trust

It is likely the BBC Trust will be come under severe pressure by the coalition government. Both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats have been highly critical of the Trust model, stating that it has "failed".^[14] Both parties favour some kind of external regulation of the BBC.

Despite some early rhetoric about abolishing the Trust, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has made clear that he would only act within the current Royal Charter, so major changes are unlikely until after the Charter expires in 2016. He has instead expressed his support for changing the name of the Trust and installing a new non-executive chairman on the BBC's Executive Board. ^{[15] [16]}

[edit] The Trust Unit

The Trust is supported by a team of 70 staff, known as the Trust Unit. These staff are independent from the BBC Executive and include specialists in audience research, performance analysis, and finance. The Trust Unit is headed by its Director, Nicholas Kroll.

In 2007/08 the BBC Trust cost £11.909 million to run, in 2008/09 £10.517 million, and in 2009/10 £10.502 million (excluding Ofcom fees) ^[17]

[edit] See also

Advisory bodies to the BBC Trust:

• Audience Council England
• Audience Council Scotland

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC Trust at BBC Online
• BBC (2006-10-12). "Press Release: New BBC Trust to represent the public interest". http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/10_october/12/trustees.shtml. Retrieved 2006-10-14. 

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