Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 23
72nd Report - BBC World Service
Published 13 Mar 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee BBC World Service 2024-25 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The BBC accepted, however, the NAO’s finding that the rationale behind decisions on which individual language services should be closed was not clear enough and that there was insufficient supporting documentation. The BBC acknowledged that some of the decisions it made, for example the decision to close Arabic radio, “did not stand the test of time”. The BBC told us that although it could not be confident that better reporting would have led to a different decision, it would have given a clearer trail to allow understanding of how that decision was made.46
From: Public Accounts Committee, 72nd Report - BBC World Service (HC 1299), 13 March 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 June 2026 (deadline 13 May 2026).