The White Paper is a statement of Government policy. It follows two years of extensive consultation, research and public debate led by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to which many thousands of people contributed. The decisions contained in the White Paper will be reflected in the new Charter and Agreement. Together these documents set the legal framework for the BBC in the next decade.
The Government has announced there will be a short period for comment on its White Paper and the draft Charter and Agreement and parliamentary debate during this time. The new Charter and Agreement will be finalised later in 2006.
The paper looks at all aspects of the BBC, from programming and funding through governance and regulation to the BBC's accountability to the public.
The key elements in the White Paper are:
- the BBC Governors to be replaced by two bodies - the BBC Trust and the Executive Board. The Trust will be the sovereign body within the BBC.
- the BBC to continue to be established by Royal Charter - the next one lasting 10 years
- Licence fee remains the best way to fund the BBC and will remain its main funding through the next Charter. There will be reviews in the future, around the time of digital switchover, into the scope for other methods of funding the BBC beyond 2016 and the possibility of distributing public funding more widely to other broadcasters.
- There will be six new public purposes for the BBC. Every activity the BBC undertakes should aim to meet at least one of these:
- sustaining citizenship and civil society
- promoting education and learning
- stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
- reflecting the UK 's nations and regions
- bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK
- building digital Britain
- A rigorous new framework to provide clarity and accountability around the BBC's public service activities to include purpose remits, service licences and a pubic value test
- A duty on the Trust to stay focussed on the interests of licence fee payers and engage with them
- A duty on the Trust to have regard to the competitive impact on the market of the BBC's activities
- A new enhanced fair trading policy to be adopted
- Clear criteria for the BBC's commercial services
- New opportunities for independent producers
- Obligations on the BBC to play its part in delivering digital switchover
The BBC issued a short statement on the day the White Paper was published, which you can read here.
Top
