Enterprise and Culture Committee, 08 Mar 2005
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Official Report
109KB pdf
BBC (Internal Reviews)
Item 2 concerns the BBC internal reviews. There are four such reviews, as part of a general review of the working of the BBC throughout the United Kingdom. Obviously, we are interested in what happens in Scotland and its impact.
Three meetings ago, we agreed that, given the sensitive stage that the BBC's reorganisation proposals have reached, the deputy convener of the committee, Mike Watson, and I should meet the senior management of BBC Scotland—especially Ken MacQuarrie, the organisation's controller—to consider the possibility of BBC representatives attending a meeting of the committee to give us a full and frank report.
Mike Watson and I had a meeting with Ken MacQuarrie yesterday, which we both thought was helpful. The tone was positive; the BBC is willing to come to give the committee a full presentation on the reorganisation, the proposals for changes in work methods and their impact on BBC Scotland. We hope to have the BBC here shortly after the recess in April. I confirm that that is still on and that we received a positive response. Ken MacQuarrie made it clear that any time the committee wants to discuss anything he is willing and keen to respond positively, as he is doing on this occasion.
We will have further discussions on wider issues to do with what is happening with the BBC, including the follow-up to the green paper that was published this week, which impacts on some of the issues that we have discussed. The Office of Communications might propose changes as a result of the general consultation on public service broadcasting. At an early future date we will discuss how we want to approach all those subjects. This item is merely to report that BBC senior management has agreed willingly to come to the committee to give us a full presentation and provide us with all the relevant facts about the changes as they affect BBC Scotland.
I have little to add, other than that when, in the near future, the controller of BBC Scotland and his senior staff make announcements on the BBC reviews and their impact on Scotland, which is one of the main areas that concerns the committee, it is only proper that they make them first to BBC staff and then to the governors. I certainly think that BBC staff—I see a member of staff in the public gallery—would be less than happy if they learned about fairly important decisions through media reporting on a meeting. That is the context in which we met Ken MacQuarrie and Ian Small yesterday. We will have a productive session when they come to give evidence to us next month.
Is everybody happy with that?
Members indicated agreement.
I will ask the clerks to fix up the details of the meeting, which will probably be on 19 April or thereabouts.