Governance

BBC World Service Responsibility Statement

Preparation of financial statements

The BBC’s Charter requires that an annual report and statement of accounts is prepared in accordance with UK Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and audited.

The statement of accounts of the BBC incorporates the financial statements of BBC World Service.

The Financial Memorandum with the FCO requires BBC World Service to prepare accounts in accordance with the BBC’s Charter.

The BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board are responsible for the preparation of an operating and financial review, statements of compliance with applicable codes and regulations and the statement of accounts.

As a result the BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board are required to prepare a statement of accounts (the ‘financial statements’) for each year that gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs of BBC World Service and of the income and expenditure for that period.

In preparing those financial statements, the BBC executive Board and the BBC World Service Board are responsible for:

• selecting suitable accounting policies and then applying them consistently;
• making judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
• stating whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and,
• preparing the financial statements on the going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that BBC World Service will continue in business, in which case there should be supporting assumptions or qualifications as necessary.
  
  

In addition, the BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board have elected to comply with the accounting and disclosure provisions of the Companies Act 1985 and, where applicable, the Financial Services Authority Listing Rules, which apply to a company quoted on an EU-regulated market except that International Financial Reporting Standards have not been adopted.

The BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of BBC World Service and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the applicable disclosure provisions of the Companies Act 1985.

They also have a general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of BBC World Service and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.

The BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the BBC World Service website. Legislation in the uK concerning the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board members who held office at the date of approval of this Annual Review confirm that, to the best of their knowledge:

• the financial statements, prepared in accordance with UK Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and deficit of BBC World Service and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole; and,
• the operating and financial review includes a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of BBC World Service and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties faced.

Statement of disclosure of information

The BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board members who held office at the date of approval of this Annual Review confirm that, so far as they are each aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the BBC World Service's auditors are unaware; and each BBC Executive Board member and BBC World Service Board member has taken all the steps that they ought to have taken as a BBC Executive Board or BBC World Service Board member to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the BBC World Service's auditors are aware of that information.

Going concern

The click Financial Review, together with the click Director's overview, provides an assessment of BBC World Service's performance and current position. The BBC World Service's approach to risk management is also outlined in Statement on Internal Control.

This includes regularly reviewing the risks faced by the business, including the impact of the current economic climate and the likelihood of securing adequate funding from the FCO.

The going-concern basis has been adopted in the preparation of the financial statements as the BBC Executive Board and BBC World Service Board believe that BBC World Service will continue to receive adequate resources to continue its operations for the foreseeable future. This statement was approved by the BBC Executive Board and the BBC World Service Board on 8 June 2009 and signed on their behalf by:

Mark Thompson
Director-General, BBC

Peter Horrocks
Director, BBC World Service

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