MINUTES OF THE BBC TRUST MEETING

Held on Thursday 19 March 2009 at the Council Chamber, Broadcasting House, London

Present: Michael Lyons Chairman Chitra Bharucha Vice-Chairman Diane Coyle Trust Member Richard Tait Trust Member (Items 41 – 52) Alison Hastings Trust Member for Mehmuda Mian Trust Member Rotha Johnston Trust Member for Janet Lewis Jones Trust Member for David Liddiment Trust Member

Apologies: Patricia Hodgson Trust Member Jeremy Peat Trust Member for Anthony Fry Trust Member

In attendance Nicholas Kroll Director, BBC Trust from the Trust Phil Harrold Head of Secretariat and Governance Unit: Mark Wakefield Head of Performance Penny Young Head of Audiences Fran O’Brien Head of Editorial Standards Kate Atkins Deputy Head of Communications Michael Caphane Business Co-ordinator Item 39 – 40, Christopher Woolard Deputy Director 43 - 52 Items 36 – 38, Jon Cowdock Chief Strategy and Policy Adviser 41 - 52 Item 39 Julia Ockenden Finance & Strategy Adviser Item 39 Kate Hawkins Research Manager Items 39, 43 - 46 Alison Bexfield Chief Financial and Compliance Adviser Item 42 Gareth Barr Senior Strategy and Policy Adviser Items 46 & 47 Bronwen Roscoe Senior Strategy Adviser Items 37 & 45 Peter De Val Head of Legal

For items: Items 41 – 49 Mark Thompson Director-General Items 41 – 49 Mark Byford Deputy Director-General Items 41 – 49 Caroline Thomson Chief Operating Officer Items 41 – 49 Zarin Patel Chief Financial Officer Items 41 – 49 Jessica Cecil Head of Director-General’s Office Item 42 John Tate Director, Policy and Strategy Item 42 Gautam Rangarajan Head of Policy and Development Item 43 – 45 Chris Day Group Financial Controller Item 45 Edward James Head of Group Reporting and Analysis Item 47 Pat Loughrey Director, Nations & Regions Item 47 James Heath Head of Strategy, Journalism Item 47 Madeline Denmead Finance Director, BBC Nations & Regions

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AGENDA

36 Minutes and Matters Arising

37 Committees and Audience Councils

38 Director’s Report

39 TV Licensing Collection Methods Review: Report

40 Audience Engagement

41 Director-General

42 Response to Digital Britain Interim Report

43 Quarterly Financial Report

44 Business Review

45 Budget 2009-10 to 2011-12

46 Broadcasting House, Technology Business Case

47 BBC Executive’s Proposals for Enhanced Nations and Regions Linear Services

48 Annual Report and Accounts Update

49 BBC Trust Work Plan

50 Items for Noting

51 Business Handling and Communication

52 Any Other Business

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36 MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING

36.1 The Trust approved the minutes of the meetings held on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 February as accurate records of proceedings. The Trust approved the publication of the minutes with no redactions.

36.2 The Trust noted the matters arising from previous meetings.

37 COMMITTEES AND AUDIENCE COUNCILS

37.1 The Trust noted the reports from each of the committees and Audience Councils. The chairmen of each committee and Council updated members on the major outcomes of their respective meetings.

37.2 The Chairman of the Audiences and Performance Committee (APC) updated the Trust on the committee's consideration of the proposed additional investment of £30.7m in BBC Online over the next three years. In accordance with the Framework Agreement, the APC had to consider whether the proposal constituted a significant change to the UK Public Services and therefore required a public value test (PVT) before any decision was made to approve the new investment. As the new investment represented a change to a key characteristic of BBC Online’s service licence, including due to its size, the Framework Agreement required the APC to start its consideration with the presumption that a PVT was required.

37.3 Having considered the investment on the basis of the four relevant factors (impact, financial implications, novelty and duration), and of other information relevant to the exercise of its judgment, the APC concluded however that a PVT would not be required on the investment as a whole and made that recommendation to the Trust.

37.4 The Trust agreed not to conduct a PVT on the additional BBC Online spend as a whole. It requested that governance arrangements be put in place by the Executive to monitor, on an ongoing basis, the impact on the market of separate categories within the new investment.

38 DIRECTOR’S REPORT

38.1 The Director, BBC Trust presented his report, which provided an overview of activity undertaken by the Trust Unit and previewed the key issues to be considered by the Trust at the meeting.

38.2 The Trust noted the National Assembly for Wales’ consultation on the proposed Legislative Competence Order on the Welsh language and agreed any response would be approved by the Chairman and the member for Wales.

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39 TV LICENSING COLLECTION METHODS REVIEW: REPORT

39.1 The Deputy Director, BBC Trust presented the review of TV licence fee collection methods for approval and noted it had previously been considered by the Finance and Compliance Committee (FCC). The review looked at whether current collection arrangements were efficient, appropriate and proportionate and made a number of recommendations.

39.2 The Trust discussed the key recommendations of the report: that TV Licensing should improve the tone of its early dealings with the public and especially households that do not have TV sets; that communications should be clear and concise, polite but firm; and that TV Licensing should put more emphasis on the targeted enforcement of the minority of hard core evaders to make sure that everyone who should pay, does pay.

39.3 The report also recommended that payment plans be simplified, especially for people on low incomes, that easier notification arrangements for households without TV sets be put in place and that clearer communication be provided on the legal requirement for a TV licence to view live internet streaming on PCs or mobile devices.

39.4 Members agreed that the Executive should be asked to provide a report on implementation of the recommendations within three months.

39.5 The Trust agreed the recommendations and approved the report for publication.

40 AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

40.1 Members discussed a paper, presented by the Trust’s Head of Audiences, outlining the Trust’s evolving approach to engagement with audiences following the consumer positioning work. The Trust agreed that proposals for direct public engagement by members should be developed.

40.2 The Trust noted a paper providing an update on progress on the Trust’s consumer positioning strategy.

41 DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S MONTHLY REPORT

41.1 The Director-General outlined recent highlights from the BBC’s services, including a successful Comic Relief, which attracted large audiences as well as significant public donations to the charity.

41.2 The Trust was provided with updates on the Broadcasting House, London development and also BBC Worldwide’s joint venture with Woolworths, 2 Entertain.

41.3 The Deputy Director-General outlined key stories covered recently in the BBC’s 5

journalism output, including coverage from Northern Ireland and reporting on the recession from across the UK. The BBC’s recent successes at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards were noted.

41.4 The Director-General informed the Trust that he had appointed Lucy Adams as Director, BBC People; Barbara Slater as Director, Sport; and Peter Horrocks as Director, World Service.

42 RESPONSE TO DIGITAL BRITAIN INTERIM REPORT

42.1 The Trust discussed the Trust and the Executive’s draft responses to the interim Digital Britain report, approved them for submission to the Government and agreed that they be published.

42.2 The Director-General updated the Trust on partnership initiatives including a range of partnerships being developed with the radio industry.

43 QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT

43.1 The Chief Financial Officer introduced the quarterly financial report from the Executive Board, noting that it had previously been discussed in detail by the Trust’s Finance and Compliance Committee (FCC).

43.2 The Trust considered the financial risks facing the BBC as highlighted in the report. The Executive agreed to provide a detailed update on risks to the FCC in the future. The Trust also discussed implementation of the Executive’s Continuous Improvement Programme target.

44.3 The Trust noted the quarterly financial report

44 BUSINESS REVIEW

44.1 As part of its programme of reviews of major spending areas outside the service licences, the Trust noted a presentation from the Trust’s Deputy Director and the Chief Financial Officer on the BBC’s business and non-service functions.

44.2 Trustees discussed the performance of outsourced contracts, the short term and long term challenges surrounding these and the drive for further value and efficiency. The Trust also considered commercial performance issues and business continuity risks around technology.

45 BUDGET 2009-10 TO 2011-12

45.1 The Chief Financial Officer presented to the Trust, for approval, the 2009/10 budget within the context of the 2009/10 to 2011/12 three year financial plan. She noted that the budget was aligned with the BBC’s high level strategic plans, the 6

‘Delivering Creative Future’ six year strategic framework and key operational strategies.

45.2 It was noted that the Finance and Compliance Committee (FCC) had considered the budget at two previous meetings. Prior to recommending it to the Trust, the FCC had been satisfied that the budget was appropriate to the BBC’s overall Public Purposes and financial health and in accordance with Trust-approved strategies (including the priorities set by purpose remits, service licences and any applicable Trust direction).

45.3 The Trust discussed the key risks likely to impact on the BBC’s ability to meet the proposed budget and also reviewed the key assumptions underpinning the budget. The Trust also assessed the Executive’s proposals on talent pay, welcoming the commitment to reduce significantly rates paid to top talent in the future.

45.4 The Trust discussed the impact of the Delivering Creative Future strategy on the BBC’s operations. Members sought assurance from the Executive that the quality of the BBC’s output would be maintained.

45.6 The Trust approved additional investment of £30.7m in BBC Online, over the next three years, as part of the 2009/10 to 2011/12 budget. The Trust also approved the necessary amendment to the budget of the BBC Online service licence.

45.7 The Trust also approved a service licence uplift of 0.2% over the next three years for Radio nan Gaidhael. The baseline budget for the revised service licence for Children’s services would stand until further fully costed proposals for the changes were presented to the Trust.

45.8 The Trust approved the BBC budget and three year financial plan.

46 BROADCASTING HOUSE, TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS CASE

46.1 The Chief Operating Officer presented a paper requesting approval of the technology phase of the Broadcasting House, London project. The Trust noted the paper had been endorsed by the Finance and Compliance Committee in March.

46.2 The paper sought approval for investment in core technology costs as well as project management costs and transitional costs, to ensure key technology would be available from the first day of operation.

46.3 The Trust considered the paper and approved the business case as presented by the Executive and endorsed by the FCC.

47 BBC EXECUTIVE’S PROPOSALS FOR ENHANCED NATIONS AND REGIONS LINEAR SERVICES

47.1 The BBC Executive presented a paper setting out proposals to strengthen the BBC’s existing linear TV and radio services, as a response to the Trust’s challenge 7

to develop an alternative to the Executive’s local video proposals which had been rejected by the Trust following a Public Value Test.

47.2 The Trust were broadly supportive of the proposals, in particular the focus on sport and the targeting of areas in the UK where the need was greatest, through increased factual and entertainment programming. The Trust felt the proposal could be more ambitious in some areas and asked the Executive to consider further options for the project, to identify partnership opportunities and to examine closely the audience impact of the individual elements of the proposal.

47.3 The Trust supported the direction of the Executive’s proposals for enhancing nations and regions linear services and requested that the Executive return with further strategic options, building on the priorities outlined in the paper.

48 ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS UPDATE

48.1 The Trust’s Head of Performance presented a paper outlining the structure, contents, key success measures and key messages for the 2008-09 Annual Report and Accounts.

48.2 The Trust approved the proposed structure for both the Trust and Executive parts of the Annual Report and Accounts.

49 BBC TRUST WORK PLAN

49.1 The Trust approved the Work Plan and agreed it should be published.

50 ITEMS FOR NOTING (a) Minutes of Trust Committees and Audience Councils (b) Documents for Sealing

51 BUSINESS HANDLING AND COMMUNICATIONS

51.1 The Trust discussed the handling and communication of items considered at the meeting.

52 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

52.1 It was noted that Hickman and Rose had confirmed that they would not be asking for judicial review of the Trust’s decisions concerning the Director-General’s decision not to broadcast the DEC Gaza Crisis appeal.

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