Recommendations & Conclusions
25 items
2
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC has not assessed how the changes it has made to the scope of Across the UK will affect the overall shape of the programme and the benefits it is intended to deliver. Since the BBC’s announcement in March 2021, it has changed the composition of projects that make …
Government response. The BBC agrees, stating that ATUK programme benefits are updated monthly as part of programme reporting, with significant changes managed through a control process and all forecasts and actuals compared to a programme baseline.
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
The BBC remains very confident that it will deliver Across the UK as expected – we are concerned this is misplaced, given it is behind schedule in key areas. The BBC’s initial lack of planning resulted in unrealistic timelines for some areas of the programme, such as moving roles and …
Government response. The BBC's Radio and Music business plan was approved in May 2024, and it is confident it's on track to complete audio team relocations by April 2025. However, the apprentice program is under review due to savings plans, and future …
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC’s reporting of Across the UK does not provide Parliament nor the public with a complete picture of progress with the programme, and risks causing confusion. The BBC considered its internal governance of programmes to be tight and specific, but in its public communication of its progress with Across …
Government response. The BBC has already implemented the recommendation by making changes to its 2023-24 Annual Report and Accounts, including clearly labelling Across the UK Programme content and separating it from other activities, and adding new performance data.
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC’s plans for evaluating Across the UK are incomplete and it does not have in place an overall approach for assessing impact. To assess Across the UK, the BBC planned to measure changes to audience perception as well as additional economic benefits such as jobs created. However, it lacked …
Government response. The BBC states it has adapted its benefits tracking into an integrated tracker and, since Phase 2 commenced in April 2023, has approved full measurement frameworks for audience and economic impact, sharing them with the NAO. It continues to gather …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC has not fully grasped the significance of the other bodies and communities it needs to work with effectively and which are crucial to the success of Across the UK. As part of Across the UK, the BBC has established partnerships with local authorities, combined authorities and local industry …
Government response. The BBC committed to engaging with staff by analysing staff survey results by location, engaging with divisional teams and regional leadership as part of a midpoint review, and conducting post-implementation reviews for relocations. It clarified that specific ATUK questions are …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the BBC on its implementation of its Across the UK programme.1
Government response. The BBC responded by stating its confidence that the Across the UK programme will exceed its financial and economic benefit targets, detailing existing success and benefits measures, and describing the positive impact on programming and regional economic growth.
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
We repeatedly asked the BBC to clarify how its activities will deliver the objectives of Across the UK. In response, the BBC gave us multiple examples of the programmes it has moved outside London and the local partnerships it had set up, and emphasised its target of transferring £700 million …
Government response. The BBC will review delivery of the Across the UK programme to ensure the programme is still forecast to deliver its intended benefits. The BBC forecasts comfortably meeting the financial benefit of the ATUK programme and their goal is to …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
Since announcing Across the UK in March 2021, the BBC had de-scoped some activities from the programme, including moving some activities to other initiatives. For example, the BBC originally planned to create a new network of more than 100 digital community reporters across the UK, but later in 2021 decided …
Government response. The government acknowledges that the BBC had made changes to the programme following its original public announcement in March 2021, clarifying that the ATUK program business plan was set after the decision to remove Local and Nation’s journalism commitments from …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
In June 2023, the BBC announced that its Concert Orchestra would not be moving outside London as it had originally planned. The relocation would have transferred £23 million of audio expenditure outside London. The BBC will need to find other audio expenditure to transfer if it is to meet its …
Government response. The gap in the program expenditure caused by the decision to not relocate the BBC Concert Orchestra has been closed as a result of additional activity included in the Radio & Music business case approved in May 2024.
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
The BBC told us that the third phase of the programme, which will run from April 2025 to the end of March 2028, would focus on maximising the impact of the strategy and, where necessary, make changes to its commissions to ensure that it was getting the maximum return and …
Government response. The government notes the BBC's claims of significant changes to programming, with 60% of network television spend outside London and a projected 50% of radio and music spend invested outside the capital by the end of the current Charter.
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
The BBC told us that Across the UK only included work to move activities outside the M25 and that it had separate strategies for its related initiatives in local services. We therefore asked the BBC about the potential impact of other change programmes, particularly in audio, that could affect the …
Government response. The response notes that BBC Local and Nations initiatives have been delivered by BBC Nations since October 2021, which is when the decision was made to remove Local and Nation’s journalism commitments from the ATUK program scope.
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC met many, but not all, of the specific targets that it set for phase one of Across the UK to the end of March 2023. By March 2023, the BBC had already commissioned 110 new and returning drama and comedy programmes reflecting communities outside London, against a target …
Government response. The response states that because of the £700 million financial benefit created by the programme, Licence Fee payers have seen significant changes to programming, and 60% of network television spend is already outside London.
HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC’s initial lack of planning resulted in unrealistic timelines for some areas of the programme, such as moving roles and local recruitment. It took three months for it to catch up and meet its target for transferring overall expenditure outside London, achieving its target by the end of June …
Government response. The BBC has accelerated delivery of the programme, including the realization of financial benefits, and met its Phase One financial benefit target by June 2023, just one quarter behind plan. Target implementation date is December 2025.
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
The BBC recognised that it was behind schedule with its plans to transfer audio expenditure outside London. By March 2023, the BBC spent 41% of its expenditure on network audio production outside London, an increase of just 1 percentage point compared with 40% in March 2020. Having transferred 1 percentage …
Government response. The BBC states that its Radio and Music business plan was approved in May 2024 and is on track to deliver its contribution to the programme, including achieving 50% of network spend outside of London.
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
The BBC was also behind on its targets for apprentice recruitment, namely to double the number of in-house apprentices by the end of 2025, supporting 1,000 in any given year, with 80% of its apprentices outside London. By March 2023, the BBC had recruited 617 in-house apprentices, against a target …
Government response. The BBC has supported over 1,300 apprentices, but the apprentice program has been impacted by significant savings plans, so they are reviewing the ability to deliver their full apprentice target in 2025.
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
We asked the BBC about its diversity and inclusion targets for apprentices, and whether it shared our concerns that these were not being met. The BBC explained that it had set overall diversity and inclusion targets for the whole of the BBC. This was for 50% of staff to be …
Government response. The apprentice programme has been impacted by significant savings plans across the BBC, including reductions to staff headcount and the BBC’s ability to deliver its full apprentice target in 2025 is currently being reviewed and it may be necessary to …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
In response to our inquiry on Across the UK, we received written evidence relating to local news and the impact of the BBC’s changes to its local services. Although the BBC told us that its local strategy was being delivered as a separate strategy to Across the UK, we noted …
Government response. The government acknowledges that the BBC had made changes to the programme following its original public announcement in March 2021, clarifying that the ATUK program business plan was set after the decision to remove Local and Nation’s journalism commitments from …
HM Treasury
18
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
We asked the BBC if it understood why there was public confusion about what Across the UK did, and did not, include. We observed that a member of the public might think that when something related to the decentralisation of activity brought benefits, the BBC claimed the benefits as part …
Government response. The BBC has made changes to the BBC Annual Report and Accounts for Financial Year 2023-24 to clearly label narrative and statistics that relate to the Across the UK Programme and separate these from other pan-UK activity, and has included …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
In October 2021, the BBC agreed a phased approach to evaluating Across the UK. According to this plan, the BBC would not develop its methodology for evaluating Across the UK until phase two of the programme (April 2023 to the end of March 2025) and would not start measuring impact …
Government response. The BBC has strengthened its management of programme benefits, introducing a refreshed approach to programme management including a new integrated benefits tracker and full measurement frameworks for audience and economic impact.
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
In November 2023, the NAO found that the BBC did not yet have a fully developed evaluation plan to assess its progress with implementing Across the UK and to capture the intended benefits. The NAO reported that at this stage of the programme it would have expected the BBC to …
Government response. The BBC has strengthened its management of programme benefits, including introducing a refreshed approach to programme management and has adapted its benefits tracking to produce a new integrated benefits tracker which provides a holistic view of benefits tracking for the …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
We asked the BBC what precisely it would measure as part of its evaluation. It told us that it had developed frameworks for measuring two key criteria for the evaluation – the audiences framework and the economic framework. It explained that as part of the economic framework it had developed …
Government response. The BBC has strengthened its management of programme benefits, introducing a refreshed approach to programme management including a new integrated benefits tracker.
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
We asked the BBC how it was future-proofing Across the UK and how it would ensure that it was not simply replicating the problems of London elsewhere in the future in its regional hubs. These hubs refer to the locations in which the BBC set up Across the UK activities …
Government response. The government notes that the BBC has also relocated editorial decision-making, more than doubling the number of network television commissioners based outside London from 15 to 41 and that the BBC is forecasting to comfortably meet the financial benefit of …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Acknowledged
We asked the BBC if it was always a driver or sometimes the follower in a local creative economy. Giving the example of its move to Salford, the BBC described itself as an “effective first domino”, saying that the local supply chain grew by 70% when it invested in Salford. …
Government response. The government notes the forecasted regional economic benefits of the shift in editorial spend, including PwC's conclusion that BBC ATUK spend is forecast to lead to 4,750 new creative businesses and 45,000 additional jobs outside London and that BBC has …
HM Treasury
24
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
We asked the BBC about the potential impact on Across the UK of issues within local government finance, given that several local authorities were reportedly close to declaring themselves bankrupt, or had already in effect done so, and may have to withdraw some local services. In light of current financial …
Government response. The Across the UK programme board is in regular dialogue with external partners to ensure the BBC is fully across any anticipated future issues related to delivery and the BBC continues to monitor the financial position of local partners.
HM Treasury
25
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s impleme…
Accepted
We asked the BBC what specific data its management had to tell it what its staff thought about Across the UK. It told us it did not have any specific data but said it had a comprehensive staff survey where it looked at how people felt in each location and …
Government response. The BBC will improve monitoring of staff views by analysing staff survey results by base/location, engaging with divisional teams and regional base leadership for feedback as part of the midpoint review, and conducting post-implementation reviews for divisional relocations. Target implementation …
HM Treasury