MINUTES OF THE BBC TRUST MEETING
Held on Wednesday 22 April 2015 at the BBC Trust, 180 Great Portland Street, London
Present: Rona Fairhead Chairman Diane Coyle Vice Chairman Richard Ayre Trust member Mark Damazer Trust member Mark Florman Trust member for England Bill Matthews Trust member for Scotland Aideen McGinley Trust member for Northern Ireland Nick Prettejohn Trust member Elan Closs Stephens Trust member for Wales Suzanna Taverne Trust member Lord Williams Trust member
Apologies: Sonita Alleyne Trust member
From the Trust Unit: Alex Towers Director, BBC Trust Kate Atkins Chief Adviser, Governance Items 50 and 53 Stephen Callow Senior Strategy Adviser Items 44-51, 53, 54 Jon Cowdock Head of Business Strategy Item 53 Peter De Val Head of Legal Items 44-51, 57 Mark Devane Head of Communications Items 44-51, 57 Alison Gold Head of Public Services Strategy Items 44-51 Georgina Hodges Chief Research and Audiences Adviser Items 44-51, 53 Fran O’Brien Head of Editorial Standards Item 55 Stephanie Simmonds Deputy Head of Legal Items 44-51, 53, 57 Gareth Tuck Chief Financial Adviser
From the BBC Executive: Items 52-57 Tony Hall Director-General Items 52-57 Anne Bulford Managing Director, Finance & Operations Item 57 Helen Boaden Director, Radio Item 57 Danny Cohen Director, Television Item 57 Ralph Rivera Director, Digital Items 52-57 Clare Sumner Chief of Staff to the Director-General Item 57 Phil Harrold Company Secretary Items 52-57 Gautam Rangarajan Director, Strategy Items 52-56 James Heath Director, Policy and Charter Items 52-56 Tim Pemberton Senior Leadership Development Trainee
CONTENTS
44 NEW TRUST MEMBERS
45 MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
46 DIRECTOR’S REPORT
47 CHAIRMAN’S UPDATE
48 REPORTS FROM TRUST COMMITTEES
49 IMPARTIALITY REVIEW
50 CHARTER REVIEW
51 AUDIENCE COUNCIL ENGLAND MEMBERSHIP NOMINATIONS
52 DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT
53 CHARTER REVIEW
54 CREATIVE INDUSTRY TAX RELIEF
55 INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF THE BBC’S CHILD PROTECTION AND WHISTLEBLOWING POLICIES AND APPROACH TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE DAME JANET SMITH REVIEW
56 RENEWAL OF NON-EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENT
57 END OF YEAR PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION
44 NEW TRUST MEMBERS
44.1 The Chairman welcomed new Trust members Mark Damazer and Mark Florman, who had taken up their appointments on 1 April.
44.2 She also congratulated Alex Towers on his appointment as Director, BBC Trust.
45 MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
45.1 The Trust approved the minutes of the meetings held on 25 and 26 March as an accurate record of proceedings.
45.2 Trust members noted the matters arising.
46 DIRECTOR’S REPORT
46.1 The Director, BBC Trust presented his report, which provided an overview of activity undertaken by the Trust.
46.2 The Trust agreed some changes in the membership of its committees, to come into effect on 1 May.
47 CHAIRMAN’S UPDATE
47.1 The Chairman updated the Trust on recent events and activities.
47.2 The Trust noted the outcomes of its board evaluation exercise and the actions agreed upon. It also noted the priorities agreed by its committees for 2015-16.
47.3 The Chairman thanked former Director Jon Zeff for his contribution to the Trust and wished him well for the future.
48 REPORTS FROM TRUST COMMITTEES
48.1 Suzanna Taverne, Chair of the Services Committee, said the committee had discussed some proposed changes to Radio 4 and Radio 5 live Sports Extra with the Executive. The proposals included premiering some Radio 4 content online and broadening the remit of Radio 5 live Sports Extra. The Trust would consider any required changes to the service licences as part of its service review into speech radio.
48.2 The Chair of the Services Committee said the Trust was about to launch a consultation on a draft distribution framework, covering the distribution of TV, radio and online services to any device used to access them, including TVs, radios, PCs, tablets, games platforms, set top boxes, and mobile phones.
48.3 Richard Ayre, Chair of the Editorial Standards Committee, said the committee had agreed to commission some content analysis to monitor progress made by the Executive following the Trust’s 2008 impartiality review of BBC network news coverage of the devolved nations.
49 IMPARTIALITY REVIEW
49.1 The Trust approved a recommendation from its Editorial Standards Committee that its next impartiality review should examine the coverage and use of statistics in BBC news and current affairs output
50 CHARTER REVIEW
50.1 The Trust considered the BBC’s latest plans ahead of Charter review and other Charter-related work, ahead of a discussion with the Executive later in the meeting.
51 AUDIENCE COUNCIL ENGLAND MEMBERSHIP NOMINATIONS
51.1 The Trust approved the appointment of four new members of its advisory body, Audience Council England.
52 DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REPORT
52.1 The Director-General updated the Trust on the BBC’s coverage of the General Election period and noted BBC One’s strong performance in the first quarter of the year where programmes such as EastEnders live week, Comic Relief, The Voice UK, Poldark, Still Open All Hours and Six Nations Rugby had helped it achieve a 23.3% share in all hours and 25.2% in peak.
52.2 He said the strength of the BBC’s recent drama output had been recognised in the nominations for this year’s BAFTA awards with Happy Valley, Marvellous, The Missing and Line of Duty each receiving
three nominations.
52.3 He said Radio 2 was increasing its commitment to the arts with a number of new initiatives, including the station’s first ever artist in residence.
52.4 The Director-General updated the Trust on the impact of the actions the Executive had taken in July 2014 to improve diversity on-air and within its workforce.
52.5 He said a fund to bring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) talent and content to air had resulted in the development of a range of programmes, while new talent had started to appear on some daytime and factual programmes on BBC One and Two. He said the senior leadership development programme had launched with six individuals in secondments at the top of the BBC, including his own office.
52.6 He said the BBC was working with colleagues across the broadcasting industry as part of the Creative Diversity Network to develop a pan-industry monitoring system, as well as commissioning its own detailed snapshots of output.
53 CHARTER REVIEW
53.1 The Director, Strategy updated the Trust on some of the work which the Executive had been carrying out in preparation for the Government’s Charter review process.
53.2 Trust members discussed the Executive’s ideas around the BBC’s role in the internet age and balancing traditional broadcasts with the transition towards internet distribution.
53.3 The Managing Director, Finance and Operations gave a presentation on a range of issues relating to the funding of the BBC in the next Charter period.
53.4 She updated the Trust on the BBC’s proposed response to the TV Licence Enforcement Review, which had been set up by the Government to consider whether the sanctions currently in place for TV licensing offences were appropriate and fair.
53.5 The Trust approved the substance of the proposed response, subject to some formatting and presentational changes and it being made clear that the submission represented the views of both the Trust and the Executive.
54 CREATIVE INDUSTRY TAX RELIEF
54.1 The Managing Director, Finance and Operations briefed the Trust on the BBC’s access to creative industry tax relief.
54.2 Trust members noted that tax relief had been available since April 2013 to support the production of high-end television programmes, with corresponding benefits to UK jobs and growth. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had been keen that the BBC should be able to access the tax relief.
54.3 The Managing Director, Finance and Operations said that, following discussions with DCMS and HMRC, the Executive had established two separate “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPVs) to access the tax relief. She acknowledged that, due to a procedural error, the Trust Unit had not been notified in advance in this instance. She said that various safeguards had been put in place to ensure the SPVs were functionally, financially and organisationally separate from the BBC public service.
54.4 The Trust noted the Executive’s account and remarked on the need to have regard to the BBC’s reputation as well as compliance with the tax rules.
55 INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF THE BBC’S CHILD PROTECTION AND WHISTLEBLOWING POLICIES AND APPROACH TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE DAME JANET SMITH REVIEW
55.1 The Managing Director, Finance and Operations updated the Trust on the independent audit of the BBC’s child protection and whistleblowing policies, which had been carried out by the Good Corporation. Trust members discussed the audit with the Executive.
55.2 The Managing Director, Finance and Operations also briefed the Trust on the progress of the Dame Janet Smith review into the culture and practices of the BBC during the years that Jimmy Savile worked there.
55.3 The Trust noted the contents of the Good Corporation’s report and the progress of the Dame Janet Smith review. It also approved amended terms of reference for the Trust sub-committee on the Dame Janet Smith review.
56 RENEWAL OF NON-EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENT
56.1 The Trust approved the reappointment of Simon Burke as non- executive director of the BBC Executive Board for one year, ending 31 December 2016.
57 END OF YEAR PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION
57.1 The Director-General introduced a discussion on the BBC’s performance in 2014-15. He highlighted the BBC’s high-quality coverage of major events such as the World War One centenary, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Scottish referendum. He also spoke about the importance to audiences of the BBC’s online services and said that the Corporation would start providing personalised recommendations on the BBC iPlayer and homepage.
57.2 Executive Directors in attendance updated the Trust on the BBC’s performance against its four strategic objectives – making the most creative and distinctive output; innovating online to create a more personal BBC; serving all audiences; and improving value for money through a simpler, more efficient and more open BBC.
57.3 Trust members discussed the BBC’s performance with the Executive, noting that it had been a strong year creatively, with some stand-out successes in TV drama and comedy. They also welcomed the BBC’s strong track record in improving value for money and supported the ongoing work to build efficiency into the lifeblood of the organisation.
57.4 They agreed that, while the BBC had a strong, clear digital strategy in place, the full impact had yet to be seen and felt, noting in particular that BBC Online’s reach at 50% had not grown in several years. Members also agreed it was vital for the BBC to continue to strive to serve all audiences. Recognising that demographic and technological changes were making this objective harder to achieve, they nonetheless took the view that more needed to be done to reflect and represent better all parts of the UK population.
57.5 Informed by the discussion with the Executive, the Trust will publish its assessment on the BBC’s performance in the Annual Report and Accounts.