Recommendation 14

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 point of expenditure in 4 years, it needed to transfer a further 9 percentage points of spend in the next 5 years to reach its target expenditure of 50% by March 2028. The BBC said it was working through its plans for how it would get back on track with its planned transfer of audio expenditure and it did not expect to have these plans in place until early 2024–25.25 20 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.5, 2.11, 2.14, 2.18, Figure 6 21 Q 18; C&AG’s report, paras 2.5–2.6, 2.8 22 Qq 18, 70; C&AG’s report, para 2.6 23 Qq 18, 26, 45, 69, 73 24 Qq 69–70; C&AG’s report, paras 2.6, 2.8 3.5 25 Q 18, 26, 72–73; C&AG’s report, para 2.9 The BBC’s implementation of Across the UK 13