Governance unit

The Board of Governors is supported by the BBC Governance Unit. It is an independent department consisting of 33 staff and headed by the Director of Governance, Nicholas Kroll. The Unit reports solely to the Board ensuring they receive independent and objective advice, drawing on expert external assistance where needed.

The Unit is structured to provide a range of expertise and experience to support Governors on the conduct of their duties and to scrutinise proposals coming from management.

The Unit is structured to provide support for the Governors in three key areas.

• Performance team - supports the Governors' work in assessing the performance of the BBC. It leads on monitoring progress against corporate objectives and the new rolling programme of service reviews; it is designing and establishing a comprehensive system of service licences (including performance monitoring against them); advising on the application of the public value test; and advising on statements of programme policy.
• Value for Money/Compliance team - is a primary source of expertise in regulating the BBC, in particular on financial, commercial, economic and strategic issues. The team works to ensure that the BBC's activities provide best value for money for licence fee payers, and operate in a fair commercial manner. The team also leads for the Governance Unit on development of the BBC Trust.
• Accountability team - The Accountability team is responsible for devising and delivering a programme of work which enables the Board of Governors to understand concerns of licence payers, to listen to audiences and to consult on changes. The team works closely with the National Secretaries in English Regions, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to ensure that the work of the BBC's formal accountability network in the Nations and Regions feeds into Governors thinking. The team is also responsible for ensuring that the BBC handles complaints about output in the most appropriate way. This includes running the Governors' Programme Complaints Committee, which is the final appeal stage in the BBC's editorial complaints handling process

In 2005/2006, the total cost of the Governance Unit was £8.3million. This included £1.3 million for the national and regional advisory councils.

Costs for 2006/2007will be reported in next year's Annual Report and Accounts.