MINUTES OF THE BBC TRUST MEETING

Held on Thursday 21 February 2008 in the Council Chamber, Broadcasting House, London.

Present: Michael Lyons Chairman Chitra Bharucha Vice-Chairman Dermot Gleeson Trust Member Alison Hastings Trust Member for Patricia Hodgson Trust Member Rotha Johnston Trust Member for Janet Lewis Jones Trust Member for David Liddiment Trust Member Mehmuda Mian Pritchard Trust Member Jeremy Peat Trust Member for Richard Tait Trust Member

Apology: Diane Coyle Trust Member

In attendance Nicholas Kroll Director, BBC Trust from the Trust Sally Willson Head of Secretariat and Governance Unit: Phil Harrold Senior Adviser, Secretariat and Governance Fran O’Brien Head of Editorial Standards Tina Stowell Head of Communications Christopher Woolard Head of Finance, Economics and Strategy Items 23–27, 30 Mark Wakefield Head of Performance Items 23–27, 30, Penny Young Head of Audiences 33 Item 26 Bronwen Roscoe Senior Strategy Adviser Items 28, 32 & 33 Alison Bexfield Chief Financial and Compliance Adviser Item 29 Stephen Callow Performance Adviser

For items: Items 28–32 Mark Thompson Director-General Items 28–32 Caroline Thomson Chief Operating Officer Items 28–32 Zarin Patel Group Finance Director Item 29 David Fawcett Head of Policy Development Item 30 Pat Loughrey Director, Nations and Regions Item 30 Bal Samra Director of Vision Operations and Rights Item 30 Gautam Rangarajan Head of Policy and Development Item 31 Chris Kane Head of Corporate Real Estate Item 31 Francesca Hughes Project Director, Corporate Property Plan Item 32 Tim Davie Director, Marketing, Communications and Audiences

2 AGENDA

23. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2008 and Matters Arising

24. Reports from Committees and Audience Councils

25. Director’s Report

26. High Definition on DTT: Update

27. Director-General’s Report

28. Quarterly Financial Report

29. Delivering the BBC’s Public Purposes

30. Review of Network Supply – Interim Report

31. Corporate Property Plan

32. Annual Report and Accounts

33. Other Business

34. Items for Noting

35. Business Handling and Communications

3

23 MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 24 JANUARY 2008 AND MATTERS ARISING

23.1 The Trust approved the minutes of the Trust meeting held on 24 January 2008 with minor revisions, as an accurate record of proceedings.

23.2 Members noted the matters arising from previous meetings.

24 COMMITTEES AND AUDIENCE COUNCILS

24.1 Members noted the reports from meetings of the Trust’s committees and Audience Councils that had been held in January and February. The chair of each committee and Audience Council updated the Trust on priority matters within their reports.

25 DIRECTOR’S REPORT

25.1 The Director, BBC Trust spoke to his report, which summarised recent activity of the Trust and provided an overview of upcoming business.

25.2 Members reflected on the outcomes of the Trust conference, which had been held earlier that month.

25.3 The Trust noted that, following discussion at its previous meeting a statement on BBC Jam would be released in the next week.

25.4 The Trust discussed the timing and possible events to be scheduled around the launch of the Corporation’s Annual Report and Accounts. It was agreed that the Trust Unit would undertake further work and present options for members’ consideration.

26 HIGH DEFINITION ON DTT: UPDATE

26.1 The Trust were informed that following discussion at the Trust’s January meeting, the Executive had formally presented a paper to the Trust outlining plans to establish a suite of public service broadcasting high definition services on the digital terrestrial television platform.

26.2 Members agreed in-principle that this proposal would be considered as a non-service application and agreed that the Trust should delegate its authority to oversee the non- service application to a sub-group of members, consisting of Michael Lyons, Diane Coyle, Patricia Hodgson and Dermot Gleeson.

27 DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT

27.1 The Director-General updated the Trust on recent performance of BBC services and programmes. In particular, he noted the early success of the BBC iPlayer.

4 27.2 He noted the recent public debate about the future of the DAB radio platform and expressed the Executive’s continued support for the platform and the BBC’s initiatives in this area.

27.3 The Director-General updated the Trust on recent audience approval figures, where survey results had indicated an increase in the number of people who trust the BBC, as well as an increase in overall approval ratings among licence fee payers.

28 QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT

28.1 The Group Finance Director presented the quarterly financial report to the Trust, noting that the Trust’s Finance and Strategy Committee had already scrutinised the report in detail.

28.2 She noted that licence fee income was slightly ahead of target with the rate of direct debit usage remaining high. Spending was largely on track and there was a continued focus throughout all divisions on controlling costs.

28.3 The chair of the Trust’s Finance and Strategy Committee (FSC) outlined the Committee’s scrutiny of the report, noting in particular the work it was undertaking with the Executive to develop greater clarity over service licence budgets and allocation of costs. He noted that this would be explored further in the lead up to the Trust considering the Corporation’s budget for 2008/09.

28.4 The Trust noted the quarterly financial report and endorsed the approach being taken by FSC to resolve outstanding matters regarding service licence budgets.

29 DELIVERING THE BBC’S PUBLIC PURPOSES

29.1 The Chief Operating Officer introduced the paper, which presented the Executive Board’s formal response to the Trust’s purpose remits. These documents (known as ‘purpose plans’) illustrated how the Executive would deliver the BBC’s Public Purposes through its services. She noted that whilst the plans would be published on the BBC’s corporate website, in line with the BBC’s commitment to openness, the documents were primarily written for an internal audience and hence industry terms and language had been maintained.

29.2 The plans focused on those areas where the Trust had provided evidence of gaps in the delivery of the Public Purposes and were designed to be long term, strategic documents.

29.3 The Trust’s Head of Performance noted that members had provided comments on the draft documents prior to the meeting and that these had been shared with the Executive, and accepted.

29.4 The Trust approved the purpose plans, subject to amendments to take into account comments provided by members offline. It was agreed that following acceptance of these changes the Executive would publish the plans.

5 30 REVIEW OF NETWORK SUPPLY – INTERIM REPORT

30.1 The Chief Operating Officer introduced the paper, which updated the Trust on the Executive’s review of the supply of network television programming. She noted that this was an interim report being presented for information before the final report, which was due later in the spring.

30.2 The Chief Operating Officer spoke to the progress that had been made on developing a strategy that would turn the BBC into a more networked operation and less of a London-based organisation.

30.3 The Trust and the Executive discussed some of the issues that the review was confronting, notably the difference between the way that the BBC and Ofcom define and measure the level of output produced outside London and in the Nations. Members discussed the underlying rationale and some of the consequences of the different definitions.

30.4 The Trust agreed that delivering quality programming for audiences must remain at the heart of any supply strategy and discussed how best to do this through creating economically and creatively sustainable centres around the UK.

30.5 Members welcomed the progress that had been made by the Executive on this issue and sought further information on how the Executive’s proposals would operate in practice. Members noted that they would be looking forward to the final report in due course.

31 CORPORATE PROPERTY PLAN

31.1 The Chief Operating Officer introduced the paper, which contained a plan for managing the BBC’s property estate in the UK. She noted that this plan was developed following scrutiny of the strategic approach to property issues by the Trust’s Finance and Strategy Committee.

31.2 The plan focused on delivering a fit-for-purpose, flexible estate at the minimum possible cost. She noted it was the Executive’s objective to ensure that the BBC’s estate was not an encumbrance but an enabler, helping to deliver the priorities agreed in Delivering Creative Future.

31.3 The Chief Operating Officer noted the changing distribution and size of the estate, particularly the move to a significant portion of the estate being outside London.

31.4 The chair of the Trust’s Finance and Strategy Committee reported that the Committee had endorsed the plan and was recommending it to the Trust for approval. He noted that the plan was stretching in some areas but with careful monitoring and good governance, the Committee believed that it would be deliverable. FSC would continue to monitor delivery, paying particular attention to areas of high risk, such as future plans for west London.

31.5 The Trust approved the Corporate Property Plan, including the move to manage the

6 estate as a single network and the plans to reduce the cost of the estate.

32 ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

32.1 The Director, BBC Trust introduced the paper, which provided a progress update on planning and developing the 2008 BBC Annual Report and Accounts.

32.2 On behalf of the Executive Board, the Director, Marketing, Communications and Audiences also provided an update to the Trust on progress towards developing the Executive’s part of the report.

32.3 The Trust noted that this would be the first time the Corporation would report on a full year under the new governance arrangements. Members discussed emerging themes and issues that were likely to feature in the report. They noted that these was likely to include: rebuilding of trust with the audience, the Trust’s focus on quality and originality, and a new six year plan for the Corporation.

33 OTHER BUSINESS

33.1 Trust Work Plan Members approved a draft work plan for the Trust for the year 2008/09 and agreed that it should be subject to a short period of consultation, focusing on Audience Councils and key stakeholders.

33.2 Trust Unit Budget On the recommendation of the Finance and Strategy Committee, the Trust approved the budget for the Trust Unit for the financial year 2008/09. Members noted that the budget would be included as part of the Corporation’s budget the following month.

33.3 How the BBC Trust Will Consult The Trust approved the policy for how it will conduct public consultations. Members noted that this was developed following consideration of the Audience Engagement protocol in October 2007. It was agreed that the policy would be published on the Trust’s website.

34 ITEMS FOR NOTING

34.1 The following items were noted: - PRS regulation (Ofcom Participation TV Report) - Minutes of Trust Committees and Audience Councils - Documents for Sealing

35 BUSINESS HANDLING AND COMMUNICATIONS

35.1 The Trust discussed the communication of matters considered at the meeting.

7