Commons committee calls for Beeb Trust to be abolished
FURIOUS MPs last night demanded a radical shake-up of an “arrogant” BBC — blasting out-of-control management and sky-high pay.
In one of the most withering attacks on the state broadcaster, a Commons committee called for the BBC Trust to be abolished as it had lost “credibility” less than a decade after it was created.
MPs said the BBC’s governance was so poor that the Director General was “effectively accountable to no one”.
And they called for a new board to be set up to oversee ‘Auntie’ and demand transparency over everything from the licence fee to the eye-watering salaries given to execs and top talent.
They said pay rates should be published if need be to prove value for money to licence fee payers.
Jesse Norman, the Tory chair of the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, said the “lobbying letter” from stars to David Cameron last year highlighted the “arrogant and introspective” culture critics hate at the Beeb.
He said it was unacceptable for the BBC to claim a raft of celebs such as Daniel Craig and JK Rowling had independently made the case for a “strong BBC” to the PM.
Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale let slip she and other celebs had been asked to sign it by the Beeb.
The committee stormed: “It was particularly disappointing that the BBC executives refused either to investigate or disavow the episode and instead defended the BBC’s actions.”
MPs reviewed the workings of the Beeb as part of the Government’s Charter Renewal. And they attacked the Government for the “secrecy” with which the new licence fee arrangement — asking the Beeb to pay the fees for over 75s — was thrashed out before the election last May.
The committee insisted the BBC was an “extraordinary national and global institution” (Forcing the public to fund it). But they said its transparency and accountability had to improve — and such a move would help it to create top level programming while answers concerns about its “arrogance”.
The BBC Trust was created in 2007 after the scandal over the David Kelly-Dodgy Dossier scandal during the Iraq War. The committee said the Trust should abolished and replaced with a new, strengthened Board that would operate under an independent chair.
The board would “assess the value for money of the BBC”.
It would also have the “power to initiate investigations into any activity of the BBC that raises a material concern”.
And it called for media regulator Ofcom to have a greater oversight role.
The BBC last night called the report an “important contribution” into the debate on the future of the broadcaster.
On the committee’s attack over the celebrity letter a BBC spokesman last night added: “There are no rules preventing the BBC or its staff from making our case on broadcasting issues.”