Recommendation 2

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 up the Across the UK programme. For example, it has removed from the scope of the programme its original plan to build a network of 100 digital community reporters, as well as the planned relocation of the BBC Concert Orchestra outside London. The BBC will need to find other ways to move its audio spend in order to compensate for these decisions and hit its target to spend 50% of its audio expenditure outside London. But the BBC did not understand well enough the risks and impacts of these changes in scope and so the nature of the expenditure it moves outside London by the end of the programme could look quite different from what it planned at the outset. Changes the BBC is making to services locally could also disadvantage certain groups. In particular, and although no longer part of Across the UK, we are concerned that the BBC’s reallocation of budgets from local radio to local online services and more sharing of weekday programmes will, in effect, reduce services for people who are older or less able to access digital online platforms. Recommendation 2: Where the BBC has made changes to Across the UK by bringing activities in and out of scope, it should compare current delivery and future forecast delivery against its original plan so that it can spell out any differences in the overall benefits to be delivered. It should refresh this analysis on an ongoing basis.