Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
56th Report - BBC Accounts and Trust Statement 2024–25
Published 21 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee BBC Accounts and Trust Statement 2024-25 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The acquisition of BritBox International in March 2024 illustrated the BBC’s strategy of investing to monetise content and secure longer-term returns.39 The BBC told us that this acquisition, alongside other initiatives, was intended to strengthen its ability to distribute content to audiences around the world and increase income in the future to help fund its PSB activities.40 While the BBC assured us that it undertook rigorous financial modelling and risk assessments before committing to such investments, it accepted that it did not currently report these assessments in a way that allows Parliament to understand how decisions were made or how performance was tracked.41 As these assessments are not visible to Parliament, there is a limited external scrutiny and accountability over the BBC’s use of debt and cash reserves. We were concerned that without transparent reporting on returns from individual investments and the optimisation of borrowing, it was difficult to judge whether the BBC was delivering value for money from its commercial activities.42 32 Q 38; BBC, BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, p. 62, 81 33 Qq 40, 41 34 Q 41 35 Qq 52-53; BBC, BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, p. 58 36 BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, p. 58 37 Qq 51, 53 38 Q 55 39 BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, p. 77, 81, 126 40 Q 53 41 Qq 40, 51 42 Qq 54-55 12 Developing Intellectual Property
From: Public Accounts Committee, 56th Report - BBC Accounts and Trust Statement 2024–25 (HC 1230), 21 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-sixth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 21 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-sixth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The BBC's response agrees with some recommendations, partially agrees with others and disagrees with the recommendation to report on targets for reducing "no-licence needed" declarations and evasion.
- On licence fee collection, the BBC agrees with modernising collection and enforcement for online viewing, but says it is not "currently practical to set a firm timeline".
- It disagrees with reporting progress against targets for "no-licence needed" declarations and evasion, saying "an evasion target is not considered appropriate" and a target for NLNs would not be appropriate.
- On digital licences, the BBC agrees and "will consider the regulatory aspects and practicalities" of making an e-licence the default, with an update in the Licence Fee Trust Statement for 2025/26.
- On commercial returns, the BBC partially agrees, saying it "will ensure" BBC Commercial's overall returns including dividends are published annually in its Annual Report and Accounts, with a target date of 2026.