Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We asked the BBC to provide detail on the changes it was making to improve its monitoring of the World Service’s savings programmes. The BBC told us that it had introduced a new monthly system for tracking finances which brings key information, such as staff numbers and savings made, together in one place.53 However, the BBC told us that its World Service finance systems required investment as it depended on significant levels of staff manually entering data into spreadsheets.54 The BBC told us that it had also improved its tracking of non-financial metrics of the World Service savings programmes. It explained that it has implemented a new monthly performance review that reviews non-financial metrics and considers the impact of changes to inputs, such as reduced expenditure, on its outputs, such as its level of content, and its outcomes, such as levels of audience trust.55 51 Q 28 52 Q 19 53 Q 29 54 Q 6 55 Q 30 16
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).