Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Twenty-Sixth Report - The BBC’s implementation of Across the UK
Public Accounts Committee
HC 426
Published 17 April 2024
Recommendations
6
Accepted
Set out contingency plans for external partner changes and engage staff on Across the UK.
Recommendation
The BBC has not fully grasped the significance of the other bodies and communities it needs to work with effectively and which are crucial to the success of Across the UK. As part of Across the UK, the BBC has …
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Government Response Summary
The BBC committed to engaging with staff by analysing staff survey results by location, engaging with divisional teams and regional leadership as part of a midpoint review, and conducting post-implementation reviews for relocations. It clarified that specific ATUK questions are not included in the main staff survey due to the small proportion of affected staff.
HM Treasury
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13
Accepted
BBC expresses confidence in meeting remaining Across the UK expenditure targets despite initial delays.
Recommendation
The BBC’s initial lack of planning resulted in unrealistic timelines for some areas of the programme, such as moving roles and local recruitment. It took three months for it to catch up and meet its target for transferring overall expenditure …
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Government Response Summary
The BBC has accelerated delivery of the programme, including the realization of financial benefits, and met its Phase One financial benefit target by June 2023, just one quarter behind plan. Target implementation date is December 2025.
HM Treasury
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18
Accepted
BBC acknowledges public confusion regarding the scope of "Across the UK" and its external communication.
Recommendation
We asked the BBC if it understood why there was public confusion about what Across the UK did, and did not, include. We observed that a member of the public might think that when something related to the decentralisation of …
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Government Response Summary
The BBC has made changes to the BBC Annual Report and Accounts for Financial Year 2023-24 to clearly label narrative and statistics that relate to the Across the UK Programme and separate these from other pan-UK activity, and has included additional performance data.
HM Treasury
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24
Accepted
BBC lacks contingency plans if local government partners withdraw "Across the UK" funding.
Recommendation
We asked the BBC about the potential impact on Across the UK of issues within local government finance, given that several local authorities were reportedly close to declaring themselves bankrupt, or had already in effect done so, and may have …
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Government Response Summary
The Across the UK programme board is in regular dialogue with external partners to ensure the BBC is fully across any anticipated future issues related to delivery and the BBC continues to monitor the financial position of local partners.
HM Treasury
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25
Accepted
BBC lacks specific staff data on "Across the UK" impact, engaged staff late.
Recommendation
We asked the BBC what specific data its management had to tell it what its staff thought about Across the UK. It told us it did not have any specific data but said it had a comprehensive staff survey where …
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Government Response Summary
The BBC will improve monitoring of staff views by analysing staff survey results by base/location, engaging with divisional teams and regional base leadership for feedback as part of the midpoint review, and conducting post-implementation reviews for divisional relocations. Target implementation date is December 2025.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (9)
2
Conclusion
Accepted
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 …
Government Response Summary
The BBC agrees, stating that ATUK programme benefits are updated monthly as part of programme reporting, with significant changes managed through a control process and all forecasts and actuals compared to a programme baseline.
4
Conclusion
Accepted
The BBC’s reporting of Across the UK does not provide Parliament nor the public with a complete picture of progress with the programme, and risks causing confusion. The BBC considered its internal governance of programmes to be tight and specific, but in its public communication of its progress with Across …
Government Response Summary
The BBC has already implemented the recommendation by making changes to its 2023-24 Annual Report and Accounts, including clearly labelling Across the UK Programme content and separating it from other activities, and adding new performance data.
5
Conclusion
Accepted
The BBC’s plans for evaluating Across the UK are incomplete and it does not have in place an overall approach for assessing impact. To assess Across the UK, the BBC planned to measure changes to audience perception as well as additional economic benefits such as jobs created. However, it lacked …
Government Response Summary
The BBC states it has adapted its benefits tracking into an integrated tracker and, since Phase 2 commenced in April 2023, has approved full measurement frameworks for audience and economic impact, sharing them with the NAO. It continues to gather economic impact data and will shortly release further economic analysis.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the BBC on its implementation of its Across the UK programme.1
Government Response Summary
The BBC responded by stating its confidence that the Across the UK programme will exceed its financial and economic benefit targets, detailing existing success and benefits measures, and describing the positive impact on programming and regional economic growth.
9
Conclusion
Accepted
In June 2023, the BBC announced that its Concert Orchestra would not be moving outside London as it had originally planned. The relocation would have transferred £23 million of audio expenditure outside London. The BBC will need to find other audio expenditure to transfer if it is to meet its …
Government Response Summary
The gap in the program expenditure caused by the decision to not relocate the BBC Concert Orchestra has been closed as a result of additional activity included in the Radio & Music business case approved in May 2024.
12
Conclusion
Accepted
The BBC met many, but not all, of the specific targets that it set for phase one of Across the UK to the end of March 2023. By March 2023, the BBC had already commissioned 110 new and returning drama and comedy programmes reflecting communities outside London, against a target …
Government Response Summary
The response states that because of the £700 million financial benefit created by the programme, Licence Fee payers have seen significant changes to programming, and 60% of network television spend is already outside London.
14
Conclusion
Accepted
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 …
Government Response Summary
The BBC states that its Radio and Music business plan was approved in May 2024 and is on track to deliver its contribution to the programme, including achieving 50% of network spend outside of London.
19
Conclusion
Accepted
In October 2021, the BBC agreed a phased approach to evaluating Across the UK. According to this plan, the BBC would not develop its methodology for evaluating Across the UK until phase two of the programme (April 2023 to the end of March 2025) and would not start measuring impact …
Government Response Summary
The BBC has strengthened its management of programme benefits, introducing a refreshed approach to programme management including a new integrated benefits tracker and full measurement frameworks for audience and economic impact.
21
Conclusion
Accepted
We asked the BBC what precisely it would measure as part of its evaluation. It told us that it had developed frameworks for measuring two key criteria for the evaluation – the audiences framework and the economic framework. It explained that as part of the economic framework it had developed …
Government Response Summary
The BBC has strengthened its management of programme benefits, introducing a refreshed approach to programme management including a new integrated benefits tracker.