Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Setting strategy andassessing performance

Reporting on the BBC’s progress:
quality and distinctiveness; value
for money; serving all audiences;
openness and transparency

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

09

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Setting strategy
The Trust set a number of priorities for the
Director‑General for 2013/14. We report on progress
below, as well as identifying our priorities for 2014/15.
Quality and distinctivenessValue for money

We highlighted for particular attention:

We highlighted the need for:

The quality, variety and originality of new drama on BBC One,especially in peakA clear and sustainable response to the National Audit
Office’s (NAO) review on severance payments to put a stop
to any future excessive payments

The quality and prominence of current affairs on BBC One
and BBC Two
The Executive has made a number of internal managementchanges that are designed to promote creativity and innovationin all genres. These include new development teams or ‘Creative
Labels’, an innovation unit, BBC Productions awards (to boost
creativity in in-house production) and a ‘Charter of Editorial
Commitments’ to improve the BBC’s relationship with, andspeed of response to, independent producers.
In October, the Director-General signalled that high-quality
British drama was a major editorial priority, and proposedchanges to BBC Three in part to redirect more funding into
BBC One drama.
The Trust welcomes this intention to further increase ambitionin drama and will look to see a positive outcome for audiences.
We reviewed the quality and prominence of current affairs
output as part of our service review of network news andcurrent affairs, published in April 2014.
We found that the BBC makes more current affairs programmes,
has larger audiences and is perceived as better than otherproviders for being high-quality and relevant, and for keeping
audiences informed of issues.
However, we also found that audiences expect more from theBBC’s current affairs and that there was a relatively low audienceawareness of much of the BBC’s current affairs output. They
want it to do more to cover stories and issues which stand out.
The challenge facing the BBC’s current affairs output is therefore
to make greater impact and increase audience awareness ofwhat it does.

10Sufficient rigour in the final years of the Delivering Quality
First (DQF) savings plans, in particular to make sure thatback-office functions can be pared back as promised
The BBC’s full response to the NAO’s review on severance
payments can be found on our website. At its heart is a newpolicy that caps any future pay-offs at £150,000, along withsignificant improvements to internal controls and processes.
Any future exceptions to the new policy need to be identified
and justified in the Annual Report.
On the DQF savings programme, significant progress has been
made in the course of the past year to remove three-quartersof the savings that had previously been considered ‘at risk’,largely through major savings in operational (non-content)
areas and contracts. The programme has so far saved£374million each year and is on track to release the planned£700million of annual savings.
The NAO is to conduct a progress report in this area later inthe year, and we hope they will be able to provide additional
assistance to the BBC in meeting its targets in the final years of
the plan.
In the meantime, the BBC will need to find additional savings tofund the new initiatives put forward by the Director-General.
The Trust will subject some of the resulting proposals to further
regulatory scrutiny where they affect services (for example
BBC Three). We welcome the Executive’s benchmarking
exercise aiming to identify potential further efficiency savings.

What’s next?

What’s next?

Our priority for the BBC in this area remains to improve
the quality, variety and originality of new drama on
BBC One, particularly in peak time.

We want to see a further reduction in senior manager
numbers and, while doing so, to establish what the
Executive thinks the BBC’s overall headcount ought
to be in future.

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Openness and transparency

We highlighted in particular our desire for:We highlighted the particular importance of:A clear strategy for free-to-air platforms

The BBC’s response to the general issues revealed by the
Pollard report (which investigated whether there were any
failings in the BBC’s management of a dropped Newsnight
investigation into Jimmy Savile)

Improvements in the representation of women on air
Improvements to the quality and prominence of current
affairs output for each different part of the UK
The Executive has presented a strategy for its investment andinvolvement in different free-to-air platforms (Freeview, Freesat
and YouView) to the Trust. We captured the results of thatwork in our review of the BBC’s participation in YouView (seepage 28) as well as in the new distribution framework that will
be put out for public consultation later in the year. This framework
will establish the key principles and parameters for future BBC
management decision-making in a way that the rest of themarket can easily understand.
There have been notable individual examples of a newcommitment from the Executive to improve the representationof women on air, and some broader initiatives, such as thecommitment for 50% of local radio stations to have a female
breakfast presenter by the end of 2014. However, content analysis
suggests a continuing gender imbalance in BBC output and we
consider that there needs to be a co-ordinated plan from the
Executive to address this as part of a wider diversity strategy.
On current affairs, the Executive has done some work for eachpart of the UK to develop new formats and to promote local
journalism. In Scotland in particular, additional funding has been
put in place to cover the referendum campaign. The Trust’s
review of nations radio (to start in 2015) will include anassessment of news and current affairs provision in each nation.

The pursuit of new creative partnerships with other major
cultural organisations and institutions
We welcome the work that the Executive has done in responseto the Pollard report, including:Changes to the organisational structures in news
Bolstered management of major investigations
New appointments from outside the BBC
A redesign of the managed programmes risk list
The challenge will be to make sure these individual changes add
up to the broader change in culture that the Trust asked for in
response to Nick Pollard’s report. From that point of view, thewider management changes made by the Director-General – toreduce internal bureaucracy and require individual responsibility
from senior managers – are extremely welcome.
We also welcome the work that has been done to promote anddevelop new partnerships with institutions as diverse as Arts
Council England (the Space), Birmingham City Council, the BFI,PACT (BBC Store), and Spotify (BBC Playlister).
As these partnerships develop, we are looking to the Executive
to set out a clearer plan for an overall strategy to build on them,and on other successes, and make the BBC an even bigger
catalyst for the success of the UK’s cultural and creative sector.

What’s next?

What’s next?

We want the BBC to make measurable progress inreflecting better the diversity of the UK population in the
BBC’s workforce and its output, in particular increasing
the number of women on air.

We want the BBC to pursue more partnerships withother cultural and creative organisations across the UK.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

11

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Serving all audiences

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Quality and distinctivenessWe assess the performance of BBC services by looking
at how audiences use and appreciate them, and we ensure
BBC editorial standards remain high.
Overview
The public expects a different, higher standard of content fromthe BBC. So, increasing the distinctiveness and quality of all its
services is a particular priority for the Trust. Maintaining higheditorial standards is one key aspect of distinctiveness, and theTrust sets more detailed and demanding requirements for
impartiality, accuracy and fairness than Ofcom sets for all otherUK broadcasters.
Here we report on how BBC services performed in termsof audience numbers and appreciation, and then on how they
complied with the BBC’s editorial standards.

Service performance
Ninety-six per cent of UK adults used BBC services each week,
and overall they continued to rate the quality of content highly,
despite the continuing budget cuts. The time people spend with
the BBC – on both radio and TV – has declined, as it has for othermajor broadcasters, probably as a result of audiences having awider choice of entertainment of all types. Of greater concern isthat, while most people continue to trust the BBC far more thanother broadcasters, levels of trust have not fully recovered fromthe impact of the controversies regarding Jimmy Savile’s time at
the BBC. Regaining the full confidence of audiences is a key priority.

Elba during the filming of the third series of BBC One drama Luther12

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Performance summary

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 Our service review found thataudiences’ demands for range andvariety are not entirely being met.
We have asked the Executive to
make a number of improvementsin this area and will monitor thechanges made.

Fresh and new
The number of people who believe theBBC offers something ‘fresh and new’has remained stable, but the public still
expect more from the BBC.

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 The distinctiveness of the BBC’s
output remains a priority and ourreview of TV services has asked
for an improvement in this area.

70.4%

70.6%

70.5%

2011/122012/132013/14

Radio – audience appreciation
Audience appreciation of BBC radio remains
high, but has fallen slightly in the last two
years.

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 We will consider how BBC radio
can maintain and increase its quality
in our speech and music radio
service reviews in the coming year.

BBC Online – audience appreciation
Audience appreciation of the BBC’s online
services increased slightly this year.

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 Our review of BBC Online last year
highlighted a number of actions for
the Executive, including improving
the site’s linking to external sites.
This year the number of‘clickthroughs’ to other sites fellslightly, so we will continue tomonitor this area closely.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Television – audience appreciation
Audience appreciation of BBC television,
while remaining high, has fallen slightly forthe first time in a number of years.

13Setting strategy and assessing performance

Quality and distinctivenessTelevision
Even though increasing numbers of people own tablets and otherdevices, watching television is still enormously popular, with theaverage viewer watching 3 hours 47 minutes of TV each day.
While the amount of ‘timeshifted’ viewing continues to rise slowly,
by far the majority of TV is still watched live.

BBC Two
BBC Two’s average AI score was stable, whilst its scores for ‘freshand new’ increased. There were a number of very distinctive andpopular dramas including Line of Duty, The Fall and Peaky Blinders,
and the factual entertainment show The Great British Bake Off wasenormously popular.

The performance of BBC television remains strong, although thisyear ‘audience appreciation’ (AI) scores declined slightly, and thenumber of viewers fell. In total, 84% of people watched some
BBC TV each week in 2013/14, down from 86% in 2012/13.

BBC Two’s total audience numbers declined slightly this year,
partly due to changes in the daytime schedule. However, more
people watched the channel in peak time.

BBC OneBBC One remains the nation’s most widely viewed TV channel,
watched by 75% of UK adults this year, compared with 78% in
2012/13. BBC One produced some very high quality anddistinctive programmes, including Sherlock, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Last
Tango in Halifax, Britain’s Great War and Penguins – Spy in the Pod.
But BBC One’s average AI score fell and there was also a slightdecline in the audience’s perceptions of its programmes being
fresh and new.

Daytime on BBC One and Two
To make savings, children’s programmes were removed from
BBC One in January 2013 and it became the primary channel for
new daytime programming. As a result, the average audience fordaytime on BBC One programming increased this year, althoughquality scores went down slightly. BBC Two’s daytime audience
declined, following the decision to remove new programmingfrom the daytime schedule.

BBC Three
Slightly fewer people watched BBC Three this year, with 26% of
As BBC One is the BBC’s flagship TV channel, we are continuing
the target audience of 16 to 34-year-olds watching each week, down
to put pressure on the Executive to ensure it offers the distinctive, from 29% in 2012/13. There is some evidence to show younger
high-quality content audiences expect from the BBC, withpeople are increasingly watching content online and BBC data
improving the quality, variety and originality of peak-time drama
indicates iPlayer now accounts for 6% of all viewing of the channel.
a particular priority.
The Executive wants to make savings by closing BBC Three as a
TV channel and instead creating an online service. When we
consider these proposals, our priority will be to represent theinterests of licence fee payers. We will conduct a public value test,
including a public consultation, so that everyone will have theopportunity to have their say.

Sule Rimi as Henry Smart in CBBC series DNN

14

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

BBC Four
BBC Four bucked the trend of the rest of the BBC’s TV channels,
reaching the same number of people as last year – 14% of adults
each week – despite significant cuts in its budget.

Children’s – CBBC, CBeebies
In 2013 we published a review of the BBC’s children’s output,
which plays a vital role in fulfilling the BBC’s public service remit.
We found that CBBC and CBeebies perform very well but the
key challenge continues to be to maintain reach and impact in amedia environment in which older children have a lot morechoice. To achieve this, we expect regular promotion of children’s
output on mainstream BBC services as well as providing somecontent that will appeal to children on these services.
Since we published the review, the proportion of children aged
6-12 who watch CBBC each week fell, from 30% last year to 25%
this year. Even at this level, the channel remains highly popularamongst its target age group.
CBeebies’ reach amongst its target audience of children aged 0-6
also fell this year, down from 43% to 40%, although its Playtime
app for tablets and mobiles has been highly successful, and it stillreaches far more children than other pre-school channels.

We will review BBC music and speech radio services in 2014/15
as part of our rolling programme of service reviews.
BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra
Radio 1’s remit is to serve younger audiences, and we havecontinued to press the Executive to ensure it does so. In 2012/13,
the station made a number of changes to its presenter line-up to
increase its appeal to younger age groups, and this year, while themedian age remained stable at 30, younger listeners now accountfor a slightly greater proportion of the total audience. The station
has been successful in reaching young audiences in new ways: theRadio 1 YouTube channel now has more than 1 million subscribers,
and the station has more than 1.7 million followers on Twitter.
Radio 1Xtra continued to reach an audience of more than 1 million
each week and, unlike many other stations, the amount of time
people spent listening to it was largely stable.

BBC ALBA
BBC ALBA performed strongly, and was watched by 18% of theScottish population each week, up from 16% last year. It did
extremely well with Gaelic speakers, with 72% watching thechannel each week, and audience approval remained high.

BBC Radio 3’s pop-up studio at Southbank Centre

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

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Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Saturday night foreign drama continued to lead the way, with
programmes such as The Bridge recording an average AI score of
92 and the channel’s highest audience of the year at 1.6 million
viewers.

Radio
Listening to the radio remains very popular in the UK, with nineout of ten adults tuning in every week. However, the time they
spend listening to the radio continues to decline and this may be
a long-term trend. This is reflected in BBC Radio listening – 67%
of UK adults tuned in each week, but for less time, with listening
hours falling most among younger adults. Listeners’ perceptionsof the quality of BBC Radio remained very high, with an average
AI of 80.

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Quality and distinctiveness
BBC Radio 2
Radio 2 continued to perform very strongly indeed. It remains theUK’s most popular radio station, with 29% of UK adults listening
each week, up from 28% last year. In contrast to many otherstations, people are continuing to tune in for the same number ofhours each week and listeners also continued to rate the qualityof Radio 2 programmes very highly.
The station has an important responsibility to ensure that its
speech output and music mix is distinctive and focuses on
promoting the BBC’s public purposes. We will consider how well
it is achieving this in our forthcoming service review.
BBC Radio 3
Radio 3 continued to reach around 2 million people each week
and they rated it very highly. The station offers a large amount of
new music commissions, and a continuous and very highproportion of live and specially recorded performances, together
with drama and other output. An example of Radio 3’s output
was a collaboration with the South Bank Centre, with a pop-up
studio giving the public access to the station for a fortnight andincluding 15 live concerts and three world premieres.
Our service review will include an assessment of Radio 3’s
distinctiveness.
BBC Radio 4 and 4 extra
Radio 4 performed very well again this year. As well as increasing
its AI score, now at 81.3, it also increased its audience – a record
11 million people tuned in each week.
Our review of BBC network news and current affairs, publishedin April 2014, found that audience numbers for radio news
programmes remain very high, and the quality of Radio 4’s news
and current affairs output was very highly rated.
We are keen for Radio 4 to reach more people who would
appreciate its programmes but do not currently listen outside thesouth of England, including in the devolved nations. This year thestation increased its audience in some parts of the country, andwe expect it to continue to look for ways to broaden its appeal
across the UK without compromising its distinctiveness.
BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra
5 live continued to attract an audience of just over 6 million each
week, while 5 live sports extra attracted 1 million. Since ourservice review, published in 2012, 5 live has made progress inproviding more serious news coverage. Our review of networknews and current affairs highlighted its role in facilitating public
discussion and debate on topical issues.

BBC Asian Network
When we completed our service review of the Asian Network
in May 2012, we said that the challenge for the station would beto grow its audience while operating with a much lower budget.
The station’s audience increased from 528,000 in 2012/13 to
588,000 this year.
Nations and local services
Our service review of the BBC’s national radio stations in 2011
challenged the Executive to give each station a more distinct role.
Since then, several stations have significantly refreshed theirschedules and this has led to some positive results.
Radio Wales’ weekly reach was stable this year at 18%, whileaudience appreciation increased. Radio Cymru has just madechanges to its schedule and we will monitor the impact of thison listeners.
Radio Ulster/Foyle is also refreshing its schedule and developing
the breadth of the local news agenda. It continued to perform
very well, reaching 36% of the population of Northern Ireland,
up slightly on last year.
Radio Scotland reached fewer people this year, down to 20%
from 22% in 2012/13, although the time they spent listening to thestation remained fairly stable. Our Audience Council in Scotland
advised us that there had been positive developments following
our service review, including new weekend speech programmingand better coverage of cultural events.
The Gaelic station Radio nan Gàidheal’s audience fell to 64%
among Gaelic speakers this year, which may be linked to theuniversal availability of the Gaelic TV station, BBC ALBA, since2011. The station will review its schedule in the coming year,
including an increase in Gaelic-learning content.
As part of the BBC’s savings plan, in January 2013 BBC Local Radio
introduced a programme broadcast across all English regions on
weekday evenings and we have been monitoring its impact on
audiences. The number of people tuning in has fallen only slightly.
Our Audience Council in England told us that the new programmemaintains the spirit of BBC Local Radio. We also welcome Local
Radio’s introduction of political reporters to many of its stations
and an increased focus on holding local figures to account.

BBC 6 Music
6 Music’s audience continued to grow, and it is the UK’s mostpopular digital-only station, with almost 2 million listeners eachweek. The station has a very loyal audience – people are tuning
in for longer and its average AI is one of the highest of any BBC
radio station.

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

BBC Online and Red Button
This year, 53 million unique browsers accessed BBC Online eachweek in the UK, with mobiles and tablets now accounting for
more than half of all usage.

In our recent service review, we asked BBC Online to enable
users to navigate more easily across the site, and to increase thenumber of ‘clickthroughs’ to external sites to allow users to findrelevant content beyond BBC Online. In fact, clickthroughs fellslightly this year, largely driven by a decline in clicks from Sport andlower clickthrough rates from the growing number of mobile andtablet users. We are encouraging the Executive to continue tolook for ways to increase the traffic it is driving to other sites.
News and current affairs
Nothing the BBC does is more important than its journalism: it isat the heart of the BBC’s public service mission and the Trust will
ensure it remains the core of the BBC’s principal services. This
year we published our first service review of network news andcurrent affairs. We found that four out of five adults get news
each week from the BBC and they rate it well ahead of othernews providers for its key characteristics of range, authority andexpertise. Young adults have always been difficult for news
broadcasters to reach but a proliferation of sources of ‘news’
online has made the challenge all the greater. We have asked the
BBC to ensure that its journalism is made available in forms thataudiences want, wherever they want it.

While audiences rate BBC News much more highly than othernews providers, perceptions of accuracy and impartiality fell alittle this year. These are important indicators which we willcontinue to monitor closely.
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service continued to reach 191 million adults
around the world this year. More people accessed the service on
television and online, while, as in previous years, the number oflisteners to its radio services declined.
Nonetheless, radio remains the single most popular way ofaccessing the World Service, with 128 million listeners, although
it lost 17 million listeners this year, mostly short-wave listeners
from India, Nigeria and Pakistan. World Service TV had 59 million
viewers each week, up from 42 million last year, with BBC Arabic
and BBC Persian channels and many other new services growing.
The World Service website was accessed by 18.8 million people,
4.8 million more than last year, with significant growth for the
Ukrainian and Russian sites due to the crisis in Ukraine and theSochi Olympics.
The Trust is responsible for setting the strategic direction of theWorld Service and for safeguarding its editorial independence.
In April 2014, the World Service became funded by the licence
fee and we have established an operating licence which sets out
its remit, scope, budget and main commitments. As with otherBBC services, we will review the performance of the World
Service regularly.

The new BBC newsroom studio at New Broadcasting HouseBBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

17

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

While the total number of people using BBC Online is still
growing, it is doing so quite slowly. It is now used by around 49%
of UK adults each week, which has increased only slightly on theprevious year. We expect the BBC’s development of its online
offer for younger audiences to broaden its appeal and will
monitor and report on this. BBC Red Button is used by 33% of
UK adults and this is fairly stable compared with last year.

Our review also confirmed that current affairs output on TV andradio covers an impressive range of domestic and foreign stories
and that the BBC is perceived as the best at producing high-quality,
relevant content, and keeping audiences informed. However, wefound relatively low recognition of much BBC programming andwe have asked the Executive to increase the impact of this output.
To help this, we will amend the BBC One service licence tosecure the presence and volume of high-quality current affairs
in the schedules.

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Quality and distinctivenessEditorial standards
The overwhelming majority of the BBC’s content
complies with the Editorial Guidelines, throughwhich we set demanding standards.
The public expects the highest editorial standards from the BBC
and people expect to be able to rely on its output to inform,
educate and entertain them. They also expect it to be accurate,
fair, independent of commercial or political pressures and, above
all, impartial. Upholding these standards is one of the Trust’s mostimportant roles, and where the BBC makes mistakes we expect
lessons to be learned.

The Trust found that there was a strong public interest in the
programme, that the BBC was not reckless and had spentconsiderable time evaluating the risks created by the trip, and thatthe correct referral procedures and processes had been followed.
However, the BBC had failed to consider a number of important
issues – or failed to deal with them appropriately – resulting in
unfairness to the student and to the LSE in the way the programme
was made. We were satisfied that the BBC staff had not set out toEditorial complaints
be deliberately misleading in their statements after the broadcast,Through our Editorial Standards Committee we uphold the BBC’s but it is best practice when the BBC becomes aware that it has
standards by considering editorial complaints and reports aboutpublicly presented incorrect facts for it to correct those facts.
serious editorial breaches. Below we report on two that were of
We concluded that the Guidelines relating to fairness,particular significance.
contributors and consent, and conflicts of interest had been
Panorama: North Korea Undercoverbreached. The BBC subsequently apologised to the complainants.
In the making of this programme, an undercover team fromThe Great Bear Stakeout
Panorama travelled to North Korea with a group of current andThis programme, transmitted on BBC One in April 2013,
former students from the London School of Economics. We
contained misleading footage, which was reported to us by thereceived two complaints about the programme on behalf of a
Executive. The programme showed accurate footage of a motherstudent and the LSE who questioned whether they were treatedbear and cubs, but it also showed a guide apparently watching andfairly by the BBC in the organisation of the trip and whether theircommenting on the scene. In fact the guide had not been present
privacy was infringed. They also questioned the accuracy and– his contribution was filmed later as if he had been. On becoming
impartiality of statements made by the BBC about theaware of this, the show’s Executive Producer posted an apology
programme after it aired.
on the programme’s web page. We commended the speed of this
response, as well as other actions the BBC had already taken.
Nevertheless, this was a serious breach of the Editorial Guidelines
relating to accuracy.

BBC editorial complaints
Number of complaints received by the BBC in 2013/14
Graphic shows
BBC editorial complaints
Numberof complaints
received by the BBC in 2013/14
Stage 3: Appeals
toStage
1: Editorial
and general complaints 94% answered on time
the Trust’s
Editorial
192,459
down
12%Standards
Committee
Stage
2: Editorial
to the Editorial Complaints Unit 84%
96% answeredon complaints
time277
answered on time
485 down 3%
3%Stage 3: Appeals to the Trust’s Editorial Standards CommitteeStage
2:
Editorial
96% answered on timecomplaints
to the277 down 3%
Editorial Complaints Unit
84% answered on time

485

Appeals received by the Editorial Standards Committee
Pie chart shows
Percentage breakdown of Appeals received by the Editorial Standards
Committee
14% – Complaints not upheld by the Editorial Standards Committee (onappeal from the Executive)
Complaints not upheld by the
19% – Complaints not upheld/partially upheldby the Standards
Editorial Standards
Editorial
Committee
Committee(on appeal from the Executive)
67% – Not considered by the Editorial Standards Committee because
there was no reasonable prospect of successComplaints upheld/partiallyupheld by the Editorial
Standards Committee

3%
Stage 1: Editorial
and general complaints
94% answered on time

192,459
12%18



Not considered by the Editorial
Standards Committee because
there was no reasonable
prospect of success

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

The BBC remains the UK’s most popular source of impartial news
Public perceptions of the impartiality of news providers
Of all news sources, which one source are you most likely
to turn to if you want impartial news coverage?
Pie chart shows:Public perceptions of the impartiality of news providers
Of all news sources, which one source are you most likely to turn to if
you want impartial news coverage?
BBC News 50%
Other 21%
Don’t know 5%
Channel 4 4%
Sky News 7%
ITV 13%
Source: Ipsos Mori, 2014

ITV 13%
Source: Ipsos MORI, 2014
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

19

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

In June we published an impartiality review, ‘Rural Areas in theUK’, led by an independent author, Heather Hancock. Taken as awhole, it found the BBC’s coverage of rural issues in news, current
affairs and factual programming was impartial, with strong
specialist output on network TV and radio. It also found that
services in the devolved nations and those in Welsh and Gaelic
Each year, the BBC runs a survey of perceptions of the impartiality
featured a wide range of voices. However, it found that networkand trustworthiness of BBC News compared with other media.
output relied on too narrow a range of organisations and charities
In this year’s results, released in June, 50% of respondents said
and concluded that the range of rural voices used should bethat BBC News was the source they were most likely to turn tobroadened. It also found that many news stories tended not tofor impartial news coverage. This is a much higher figure than forbe considered from a rural perspective and that there was aany other broadcaster and remains at around the same level asparticular deficit in coverage of rural issues in England. We havelast year.
therefore asked the Executive to address this, including how it
The Trust held an impartiality seminar on Africa in November
will ensure staff are able to report on rural issues with knowledge
2013, with guests from inside and outside the BBC. The seminarand confidence.
highlighted some of the tensions felt by audiences about all media
reporting of Africa.
Impartiality
Impartiality is central to the BBC’s role as a public service
broadcaster, funded by the licence fee. It is one of our principal
concerns in terms of editorial standards, particularly in relation tonews and current affairs.

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Value for money
In this second year of the Delivering Quality First (DQF)
strategy, the BBC has continued to save money – amounting
to £374million of ongoing savings – without compromising
the overall popularity of its programmes and online content.
A more efficient BBC
The BBC has delivered more than half of DQF’s savings alreadyand has worked to fully plan savings that were previously
unidentified or considered difficult to achieve; these have now
been reduced by three-quarters.
From April 2014 the BBC assumed responsibility for funding
the World Service (£245million); this is on top of the extra
responsibilities taken on this year for S4C, BBC Monitoring,broadband rollout, and Local TV (amounting to £250million).
With a flat licence fee, the BBC needs to find further annual
savings and commercial income of £326million in the next three
years to meet these obligations and manage any inflationarypressures on the budget. And it needs to do this while continuing
to deliver excellent programmes and content.
To this end, we welcome the Director-General’s plans tobenchmark costs across the BBC and will be looking for further
progress in a range of other areas including headcount control
and estate management as the new property strategy isimplemented.

Our research shows that most people believe the BBC offers
good value for money – 58%, which is slightly higher than last year.
People’s perception of value for money is, unsurprisingly, strongly
influenced by the range of content they consume on TV, on radio
and online, with around 71% of those who use BBC services on
all three of these platforms concluding that the BBC is good value
for money.
Nevertheless, value for money continues to be a concern formany licence fee payers and we will continue to listen to ouraudiences to ensure that the annual savings the BBC needs toachieve do not have an unintended impact on the quality andrange of the BBC’s services. We will also maintain our focus on
improving how the BBC is run, through our programme of value
for money reviews which makes an important contribution toholding the Executive Board to account. Some of these reviews
are conducted by the National Audit Office (NAO) on our behalf;
to support their work, the NAO has unrestricted access to BBC
information.
In the following sections, we summarise our value for money
work over the past year and set out our plans for the year ahead.

BBC North at MediaCityUK, Salford

20

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Performance summary

How the BBC measures up£374m

Next steps
 From April 2014 the BBC took on£245million funding responsibility for
the World Service.

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Savings
2013/14 represents the second year of the BBC’s
DQF strategy and the BBC has already delivered
over half the savings and additional income
required.

 The BBC will continue the DQF
efficiency programme to deliver theremaining savings required to help
fund this and other additional
obligations.

ongoing savings

Perceptions of value for money
As last year, nearly six in ten people perceived
the BBC to represent good value for money,
although the affordability of the licence fee
remains a concern for some.

How the BBC measures up

58%

Next steps
 We will continue to ask the Executive
to make further savings and improve
the way the BBC is run.
 We will commission value for money
reviews into the BBC’s risk
management and talent pay.

Source: Purpose Remit Survey

Reducing the pay gap
The pay multiple shows the difference in medianearnings of BBC staff, and the Director-General.
The multiple has remained broadly level withlast year.

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 The BBC will ensure that its staff are
fairly rewarded and motivated todeliver their best work for licence fee
payers.
 Our aim is to see the multiple fall overtime.
 As more public sector organisations
begin to publish their multiple, we will
be able to see how the BBC multiples
compare with the public sector trend.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

21

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Value for money
Financial strategy and annual budget
The Trust approves the BBC’s high-level strategy and budget,and we hold the Executive to account for the BBC’s financial
and service performance.
Cost savings
When the DQF plan was developed in 2012, the savings targetof £700million was based on the pre-DQF budget for 2012/13
rather than the 2011/12 outturn. This approach meant that the
impact of DQF cost savings could be tracked separately frominitiatives which were already planned for the year ahead.
We have also asked the Executive to report savings against abaseline of 2011/12 actual expenditure rather than the pre-DQF
2012/13 budget, to establish with clarity the extent to whichcosts have reduced. This year, the BBC has reported ongoing
annual savings of £374million. This is a significant achievement,
particularly as the savings come on top of the BBC’s previous
efficiency programme, which, by 2012/13 had delivered£580million of ongoing annual savings.
As well as being on track to deliver the agreed savings, the BBC
also plans to make further savings before the end of the licence fee
period in order to fund new editorial priorities.
The Trust has been tracking the impact of cost savings on the
BBC’s services by monitoring audience numbers and audience
perceptions of quality. As we move towards the final years of theplan we have also asked the Executive to assess the impact on
editorial and financial controls to check that the savings initiatives
are not having an unintended impact in these areas.
Property strategy
This year the BBC began the process of decommissioning
Television Centre following moves to MediaCityUK in Salford,
and New Broadcasting House in central London. These moves
are part of a plan to reduce significantly the BBC’s footprint in
London, and to help towards the target that, by 2016, half themoney spent on network TV programming should be spentoutside the capital.
We are expecting to see proposals for the BBC’s exit from muchof the remaining White City campus later this year. As part ofthese plans, we look to the Executive to ensure that all unused andunder-used office space in west London is sub-let or otherwise
disposed of as soon as possible. A prompt and orderly handoverto new tenants will help ensure that we get maximum value fromthe BBC’s White City campus for licence fee payers.

Pay
The amount the BBC pays senior executives and talent (on-screen
and on-air) plays an important part in people’s perceptions ofwhether or not the BBC delivers good value for money. This year
the pay multiple, which compares the pay of the Director-Generalwith the median pay of staff, was broadly stable, falling slightly from
11.0 to 10.9. This is down from 16.5 two years ago. The pay multiple
for the Executive Board as a whole was also broadly stable.
Senior executive pay
This year, we suggested that the NAO look at severance
arrangements for senior executives. They found that, although
the BBC exceeded its target of a 20% cut in the number of senior
managers it employs, the amount paid by the Executive in lieu of
notice exceeded contractual entitlement in 22 of the 150 cases
reviewed by the NAO. The total additional cost of these cases
was £1.4million in the three years to December 2012.
From September 2013, the Director-General – in agreement with
the Trust – introduced a cap of £150,000 on individual severance
payments for all staff, and for new starters, a cap equal to thelower of £150,000 or 12 months’ salary.
Employing freelancers
Last year, the BBC commissioned accountancy firm Deloitte tocarry out a review of the way freelancers are paid. The review
found that, although there was a high standard of compliance andno evidence of tax avoidance, an overarching policy in relation to
the engagement of freelancers should be established. In responseto that recommendation, the BBC worked with HMRC this year
to develop specific guidance on how to determine whether afreelance or a staff employment arrangement is appropriate foreach individual.
With this guidance in place, we will request a follow-up review in
2014/15 to ensure it is being applied consistently throughout theBBC, and that Deloitte’s remaining recommendations, forexample on increasing the disclosure of freelancer engagements
to HMRC, have been fully implemented.
Headcount
This year, headcount increased for the first time since the BBC
launched the DQF strategy. Given that, up until this year,£153.3million has been spent on restructuring, we have asked the
Executive to explain what progress has been made in reducing
headcount in previous years and identify the appropriate numberof staff required to deliver the BBC’s objectives.

We have asked the Executive to report key property benchmarks
to us as part of their regular performance reports to help us
monitor progress.

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Report on Executive Board remuneration
This is the report of the Trust Remuneration and Appointments
Committee on Executive Board remuneration in 2013/14.
The amount paid to members of the Executive Board for2013/14 is detailed in the Executive Board’s Remuneration
Committee report in Part Two of this Annual Report.

The Director-General’s remuneration is usually made up of abase salary and a pension. However, Tony Hall is currently inreceipt of a BBC pension from his previous employment with
the Corporation, and has not joined the BBC pension scheme.
The Director-General is provided with a car and driver forbusiness journeys.
Tony Hall’s base salary is £450,000 per annum, with no bonus
potential. The same salary (pro rata) was paid to Tim Davie
whilst he was acting Director-General.
We publish how much the Director-General gets paid
compared with the median salary of BBC employees toillustrate how top executives’ pay relates to the salaries of thosein the rest of the BBC. In 2013/14, this multiple remained
broadly steady at 10.9 (2012/13: 11.0).

The non-executive directors receive a fee determined by theTrust. Fee levels are set with reference to rates paid by otherUK corporations, but at a level such that the non-executive
directors are not financially dependent on the BBC.

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

The Director-General
The Director-General of the BBC is the organisation’s chief
executive officer and editor-in-chief; he is also Chairman of
the BBC’s Executive Board. There were two people in thepost of Director-General during the 2013/14 reporting period.
Tim Davie was acting Director-General from 11 November
2012 to 1 April 2013. Tony Hall became Director-General on
2 April 2013.

Non-executive directors
In the 2013 Governance Review the Trust and the Executive
agreed to appoint an additional two non-executive directors
to the BBC, bringing the total number to six.

Each non-executive director receives a base fee. The chair ofeach committee receives an additional fee for undertaking thattask, and the senior non-executive director also receives anadditional fee. Non-executive directors are reimbursed for
expenses, and any tax arising on those expenses is settled
directly by the BBC.
In November 2012, non-executive directors proposed andthe Trust agreed that their fees should be reduced. Further
information about non-executive directors’ fees can be foundin Part Two.
Last year we stated that we would review non-executive
directors’ fees in December 2013; we decided to postpone thisreview, however, until after the appointment of the two new
non-executive directors. The final appointment is expected tohappen in the early summer of 2014.
Executive directors
The Executive Board’s Remuneration Committee sets the
remuneration for individual executive directors, within astrategy agreed by the Trust. Each year the Executive reports
formally to us, explaining how this strategy is being followed.
During 2013/14, there were a number of changes in the
Executive Board. We therefore considered the remuneration
both of existing Executive Board members, and members
appointed during the current reporting period. We are satisfied
that the Executive’s approach complied with the remuneration
strategy, including the commitment to pay no bonuses to
Executive Board members, and to gradually reduce the pay
multiple, which is calculated by comparing the median earnings
of BBC staff with the median earnings of executive directors.
Further information on the remuneration packages for
executive directors, including the current pay multiple, isprovided in Part Two.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

23

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Value for money
In-depth value for money reviews
Value for money reviews commissioned by the Trust will play a
key role in delivering the Governance Review’s ambition for the
Trust to focus on its oversight and regulatory functions by more
explicitly and openly holding the Executive Board to account.
Digital Media Initiative
This year we commissioned an independent review of the failureof the Digital Media Initiative (DMI).
The aim of DMI was to improve production efficiency by enabling
BBC staff to develop, create, share and manage video and audio
content and programming on their desktop. It was closed in May
2013 and its remaining assets were written down at a total costto the BBC of £98.4million. Following this costly failure, the Trust
commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to undertakea comprehensive review of DMI’s management and reporting to
identify what lessons could be learned and applied to future projects.
PwC found that there was no single event or issue that caused
DMI to fail; rather, serious weaknesses in project management
and reporting, a lack of focus on business change, together withpiecemeal assurance arrangements, meant that it took the BBC
too long to realise that the project was in serious trouble andunlikely to deliver its objectives.
The NAO published a memorandum on DMI, following up its
original 2011 report on the project. It confirmed PwC’s findings,
concluding that the Executive did not have a sufficient grip of the
programme.

Future value for money reviews
Following a previous Trust review in 2008/09, we asked the
Executive to reduce the overall cost of talent, particularly at the
top end. Since then, the total amount paid to presenters andperformers on screen and on air fell for the fifth year in a row, to£194million, bringing the total annual saving to £35million (15%).
Having seen five years of reductions in this pay bill, now is the righttime to review the BBC’s position in the market, and to test the
Executive’s strategy for talent pay. We have begun the processof commissioning a review from independent specialists, and willreport our findings later on in 2014/15.
We also plan to commission a review of how the BBC manages
risk in order to ensure the Executive Board has put in place theright structures and processes to identify, assess, and mitigate
risks, and to deliver value for money to licence fee payers in doing
so. We intend to commence this review in the coming year.
In addition, the NAO will conduct two value for money
examinations at the BBC in 2014.
Managing the BBC’s estate: this study will provide a strategic
overview of the cost, management and performance of theBBC’s estate following a period of renewal and consolidation.
The BBC’s estate represents a significant cost and theconfiguration and effective utilisation of the estate is criticalto supporting new and more efficient ways of working.

Delivering Quality First: this review will examine the BBC’s
progress in reducing costs through DQF and how the BBC is
As a consequence, on all projects, reporting arrangements havemeasuring the impacts of cost reductions on service delivery
been strengthened to include points of external challenge, projectand quality.
management guidance has been updated, and project assurance
In each case, the NAO will provide reports to the Trust. We will
arrangements are routinely reviewed to ensure they are coherent.
arrange for them to be published and put before Parliament, andDistribution
will also consider what further work is required in response.
Also this year we commissioned a review of distribution, which
was undertaken by media consultancy Mediatique. The review
Licence fee collection
examined whether the BBC’s distribution of television, radio,
In 2012/13 the BBC implemented the new licence fee collection
and online services (such as iPlayer) are cost effective, what
contract with Capita; the contract is forecast to deliver savings
governance structures are in place, and how well prepared theto the BBC of £220million over its eight-year life. This year, theBBC is to respond to future challenges. It found that, overall,cost of collecting the licence fee fell below 3% for the first time,
expenditure on distribution represents good value for money
to 2.7%; this contributed to a reduction in the combined cost of
but that the teams within the BBC responsible for different
collection and evasion from 8.5% in 2012/13 to 8.2% in 2013/14.
distribution contracts should work more efficiently together
We will continue to ensure that collection arrangements are(see the ‘serving all audiences’ section for further details).
efficient, appropriate and proportionate.

24



BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

This year, under the previous arrangements, we received andapproved four proposals from the Executive. In July, the Trust
approved the procurement, until 2020, of transmission services
for the BBC’s domestic analogue and digital radio networks; thiscontract also included the build-out of the DAB digital network
to cover 97% of the population.
The next significant proposal was a retendering of the BBC’s
UK-wide facilities management contract in October. This wasfollowed a month later with a proposal to replace one of theBBC’s core IT systems, underpinning finance, HR, training, andprocurement.
Finally, in December, we approved the extension of the existing
technology framework contract with service provider Atos; thisis to allow the Executive time to restructure the provision of IT
facilities into six different services, co-ordinated by a service
integration and management function. We expect proposals fora number of the individual IT services to come to the Trust for
approval as the Executive finalises their procurement during 2014/15.
Trading fairly
It is important that the BBC conducts its activities fairly and thatit takes proper account of its effect on others in the market.
The Trust sets the policy framework for fair trading, holds the
Executive to account for its compliance with those requirements,
and acts as final arbiter in the event of complaints.
We monitor the BBC’s adherence to the fair trading policy during
the year and approve the appointment of auditors who conduct
an annual audit of its fair trading systems and processes. Theirreport is published in Part Two.
We are required to review the BBC’s fair trading policy
framework every three years, and we are currently conducting
the second of these reviews. We will hold a public consultation
later in the year on our findings and on any changes we propose
as a result.
In August 2013, we considered a fair trading appeal concerning theBBC’s arrangements for studio supply in the London area. At therequest of the appellant, details of the appeal remain confidential
but an extensive Trust investigation resulted in a number offollow-up actions including a review by the Executive of its studiosupply arrangements in the London area and a clearer definitionof the test of commercial efficiency that we apply to the BBC’scommercial subsidiaries.

Overseeing the BBC’s commercial activities
The Trust oversees the BBC’s commercial strategy, sets
the framework for scrutinising new commercial service
proposals and monitors compliance with conditions set
out in the BBC Agreement.
BBC Store
In July 2013, the BBC submitted proposals to the Trust to
make available a broader range of BBC programmes, on acommercial basis, via a BBC-branded website, ‘BBC Store’.

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Significant financial proposals
Following the Governance Review this year, which concluded thatthe separate roles of the Trust and the Executive Board should bemade clearer, the threshold at which we review significant
financial proposals was raised. As such, the Trust no longer
expects to approve individual investment decisions except where
they are worth more than £100million and affect the overall
direction or reputation of the BBC.

In March 2014, having completed both the commercial andpublic service regulatory assessments, including taking advice
from Ofcom, we approved the proposals for BBC Store.
New framework for commercial services
One of the conclusions to emerge from the governancereview was that we should build on the existing service licencesystem by creating public documents that set the boundariesof the BBC’s commercial work and allow us to hold the BBC toaccount for its performance. We have begun developing aframework document for the BBC’s commercial services
and will consult publicly on it later in 2014, with a view toimplementing the new framework towards the end of the year.
Lonely Planet
In 2013, BBC Worldwide sold the Lonely Planet business thatit had acquired in 2007 (75% was acquired in 2007; the remaining
25% in 2011), making a significant loss on the transaction.
We commissioned and published an independent review
which found that, against the backdrop of a sustained strong
performance from BBC Worldwide, mistakes had been
made both in the acquisition and subsequent operation of
Lonely Planet. We identified a number of lessons to be
implemented and we will ensure that these are reflected in
the new commercial framework.
Overseeing other activities
In April 2013, S4C, the Welsh language broadcaster, became
funded substantially from the licence fee. We undertake anannual performance assessment of S4C as part of our overall
duty to oversee the licence fee. We publish our assessment
separately alongside the S4C Annual Report.
New funding arrangements also came into effect for BBC
Monitoring and we have been kept informed about its
performance against criteria agreed with users of the service
in government and the BBC.
£150million of licence fee funding was ring-fenced andprovided to government to spend on its programme toextend the coverage of super-fast broadband. DCMS is
responsible for the delivery of that programme. We are kept
informed of progress, and would only seek to intervene if
there were clear evidence of any value for money problem
or any inconsistency with the BBC’s public purposes.
In accordance with the licence fee settlement agreed in 2010,
the Trust has a funding agreement with Comux UK Ltd, thecompany that Ofcom has licensed as the multiplex operator
for local television services. £16.8million out of a maximum
budget of £25million was allocated to Comux during 2013/14.
In February 2014 we initiated an audit to assess compliancewith the funding agreement.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

25

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Serving all audiences
The BBC’s services reached 96% of the UK’s population
but could do more to reflect the diversity of its audiences.

The BBC should make its content widely available to all licencefee payers in ways that are convenient to them. It should also
ensure that its programmes, and the make-up of its workforce,reflect the diversity of the UK.
Delivering BBC content
The Trust oversees the ways in which the BBC distributes
its programmes and services and we must do everything
we reasonably can to ensure that audiences can access these
programmes and services in a range of convenient andcost‑effective ways (whether on TV, online or on the radio).

The central issue for the BBC is that it needs to balance theprinciple of universal access, free at the point of use – providing
the content people want in the way they prefer – with the costof providing all content on every platform.
This year we began to develop a framework to set out clearly
the BBC’s distribution activities and to become the basis onwhich we hold the BBC to account for its performance. We willhold a public consultation on the proposed framework once it isready later in the year, with a view to implementing it towards theend of 2014/15.

Diane Coyle and David Liddiment visiting the BBC Asian Network studio26



BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Performance summary

The BBC maintains near universal reach,
despite audiences having a huge choice ofother channels and services.

How the BBC measures up

96%

Next steps
 The BBC’s ability to innovate andadapt its services, providing highquality content for everyone, willremain key to its success in the
coming years.

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

Reach of BBC services
The BBC should make its content widely
available to all licence fee payers in waysthat are convenient to them.

2012/13: 96%

Source: BBC Cross Media Insight Survey

Out of London – % of network spend
The BBC is ahead of schedule in meetingits 2016 target to produce more
television outside London.

How the BBC measures up

Next steps
 This remains an important priority
in order to address the perception
amongst audiences outside London
that the BBC could represent thembetter.

Representing the nations and regions
The BBC has made progress in improving
audience perceptions in the nations andregions, but viewers and listeners aroundthe UK still want to be better
represented in programming.

How the BBC measures up
52% of UK adults
believe the BBC
performs well in
representing theirnation or region.

Next steps
 We will continue to monitor
through audience research how
BBC programming is reflecting
the UK as a whole.

Source: Purpose Remit Survey

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

27

Setting strategy and assessing performance

Serving all audiences
YouView
In June 2010 we approved the BBC’s participation in YouView, ajoint venture to develop and promote a common standard forinternet-connected digital terrestrial television devices. YouView
offers the public subscription-free access to on-demand services
through a broadband connected digital box. Our approval was
given subject to various conditions to ensure YouView does not
distort the market, for example by crowding out other players,
and to protect free-to-air viewing of an increasing choice ofprogrammes. While certain principles (concerning free-to-air,and platform access) were enshrined in the objectives of the joint
venture and the shareholders’ agreement, others were subject
to a separate review, to be conducted a year after launch by theTrust. These were:
The implementation of accessibility and usability features
The effects, if any, on the incentives of joint-venture partners
to syndicate their content to other platforms
The steps taken by the joint venture to provide appropriate
information and signposting about the suitability of content
wherever possible
Cross-promotional activity, with reference to the Trust’s
Competitive Impact Code on Cross-Promotion.
YouView devices launched in July 2012 so we began our review
in July 2013, including discussions with industry stakeholders
and joint-venture partners. We concluded that the joint venture
was operating in accordance with the terms we approved andconsistently with the aims of the project. The findings from thereview were published in May 2014.
We also had to approve the terms of the new shareholder
agreement for YouView. In April 2014 we approved the headsof terms, and the final full agreement is due to be signed laterin 2014/15. Our main objective in all the discussions on the newagreement was to ensure that it upheld the original aims of theventure and reflected the principles behind our original approval.

Representing the whole of the UK
The BBC aims to produce more programming from across the
UK and less from London. This is to bring economic benefits to
the UK’s nations and regions as well as to represent the UK more
fully culturally.
We set the BBC a target of making 50% of network television
spend outside London by 2016, with 17% spent in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland. We are pleased to see that, again,
the BBC is ahead of schedule with 53% of programming madeoutside London and 20% in the devolved nations. This remains
an important priority in order to address the perception
amongst audiences outside London that the BBC could represent
them better.
We recognise that building sustainable creative communities
is a long-term commitment, and we accept that there may befluctuations in levels of programming from each region or nation
as the BBC prioritises finding the best programming for its
audiences in the normal course of creating content.
Representing the diversity of the UK within the BBC
In July 2014 the Executive will publish a report accounting for
progress during 2013/14 against its diversity strategy: Everyone
Has a Story 2011-2015. We note that the Executive has madesome progress against its target of 12.5% for black, Asian andminority ethnic staff (BAME), with a 0.2% increase from lastyear in both leadership grades and other staff. To build upon thisthe Executive has established a mentoring scheme, Rise, for
BAME staff.
We are nonetheless concerned by the lack of progress in theemployment of disabled staff. The BBC continues to fall short ofits target of 5.5%. As at March 2014, 3.8% of staff were registeredas disabled and the number of disabled staff in senior grades has
disappointingly dropped this year. There has been some progressin terms of disabled staff retention and we have asked the
Executive to continue with these efforts. However, rates ofpromotion and transfer for disabled staff have decreased whilst
the rate of redundancy amongst disabled staff has increased.
We expect the Executive to prioritise this area.
In terms of recruitment, the Executive has focused on diversifying
its leadership grades and have identified new models of recruitment.
We also welcome the establishment of new partnerships with
Job Centres and the Stephen Lawrence Trust to recruit BAME
talent and help prepare young people to apply for BBC
Apprenticeship schemes.
Having a more diverse staff is desirable in itself. But the objective
is BBC programmes that, in terms of writers, producers, directors,
actors performers, reporters, presenters and contributors, lookand sound more like the people of an increasingly diverse UK.

28

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

Openness and transparency
The Trust believes that the BBC has nothing to lose andeverything to gain by being open about what it does, how
it spends its money, how well it is performing and, whenthings sometimes go wrong, how it has learned from it.

A ‘mystery shopping’ exercise by the Trust in 2013 suggested
that the new system for handling audience complaints is an
improvement, while a Corrections and Clarifications webpage
means the BBC is now more open about any mistakes made.
We continue to promote increasing openness and transparency
in the Trust’s work. This included consulting publicly on the new
World Service operating licence before it was introduced forthe coming year.
We believe that an important part of openness and transparency
is to share insights and information with industry stakeholders
and other interested parties. We again held our annual discussion
session with senior industry figures on the future direction of
the BBC. Throughout the year, as well as consulting audiences
on reviews of major services – BBC Television and News – wemet regularly with industry stakeholders and other interested
parties across the UK.

The Trust also engaged with industry stakeholders more widelyon a range of other issues, including the additional guidelines forreporting on the Scottish independence referendum.
The Trust and Executive reviewed together the BBC’s
governance. We jointly recognised that the BBC needed to be
more open about the way in which it is run and held to account.
In December 2013, we committed to a series of measures tobring greater clarity to our respective roles: that the Executive
runs the BBC day-to-day and the Trust holds them to accounton behalf of licence fee payers.
The Trust committed to streaming live some of our sessions, and,for the first time, we published the annual objectives we set for
the Director-General, so that audiences can judge for themselves
how he is performing against these priorities, as well as against his
longer-term strategic objectives.
We also decided that in 2014/15, the principle of openness andtransparency should be embedded in a wider objective for the
BBC to improve value for money by being simpler, more efficientand more open. We will report on openness and transparency
as part of this new broader objective next year.

Richard Ayre’s discussion of the Trust’s service review was streamed live

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14

29

Part One: Setting strategy and assessing performance

In 2010, we gave the BBC the strategic objective of setting new
standards of openness and transparency. The BBC has begun tomake progress against this objective, for example in the amountof information routinely published about senior manager andtalent pay. The ‘About the BBC’ section of the BBC’s website wasrefreshed in January 2014, and now includes blogs from senior
managers and updates explaining how the BBC is making decisions.