Charter Review and the BBC’s response to the White Paper

The BBC’s current Royal Charter runs to the end of December 2016. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has responsibility for renewing the Charter and the BBC has negotiated with Ministers and officials to shape the future of the BBC. The process officially began when the Government published and consulted on a Green Paper in July 2015. Over the summer this consultation received an unprecedented response from the public, with around 190,000 submissions, demonstrating the support and engagement that the public feels towards the BBC. Throughout the autumn of 2015, BBC executives participated in BBC Trust seminars across the UK, listening and responding to questions from members of the public and putting forward the BBC’s vision.

The Government’s White Paper in May 2016 was a significant milestone on the way to renewing the BBC’s Royal Charter. Fundamentally, it affirms the importance of the BBC to the public and to the creative industries. It delivered three important proposals that should ensure a secure and independent future. Firstly, it proposed an 11 year Charter period to remove the coincidence of General Elections and BBC Charter negotiations. Secondly, it has cemented the licence fee as the way the BBC will be funded for the next 11 years. Thirdly, it ensured that the scale and scope of the BBC is maintained. In total, these measures should provide long-term stability and a strong foundation for the BBC.

It is now of vital importance that we are able to ensure that the positive intentions of the White Paper are clearly transferred to the new Royal Charter and Agreement. The BBC looks forward to continuing to work with Government to ensure this happens. We will also continue discussions in the remaining areas where we are in disagreement.

Whilst doing this we will, of course, continue preparations to ensure that the BBC is set up properly to address future challenges, including changing audience behaviours and shifts in the competitive landscape. In September 2015, we set out an ambitious reform programme for the BBC called British, Bold, Creative – aiming to make the BBC more open, more creative, more distinctive and more personalised than ever before. We have already started work on delivering this behind the scenes and are confident that, with a new Charter in place, it will result in a BBC that can look forward with confidence to the future.

James Purnell is Director Strategy and Education

• This blog post appears in the BBC Annual Report 2015/16 published on Tuesday 12 July 2016
• Read more on the BBC Annual Report website