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Select committee: Defence Committee

8th Special Report - Open Source Stupidity: The Threat to the BBC Monitoring Service: Responses to the Committee’s Fifth Report

Published 10 March 2017

Defence Committee BBC Monitoring inquiry Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to 5th Report - Open Source Stupidity: The Threat to the BBC Monitoring Service.

This is the government's response, published 10 March 2017.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the BBC Monitoring reorganisation and says the new Monitoring Agreement will meet its requirements, while declining the Committee's proposal for a state-owned agency.

  • On the Committee's call to create an Open Source Information Agency, the Government "does not support" closing down BBCM, calling the idea "a retrograde step" that "would likely cost more overall".
  • On the Video Unit, it states it "does not see the need to provide additional funding for a service that is already funded", and says BBCM's video output "will continue" from multiple sources.
  • On the move from Caversham Park, it says "office location and personnel management are issues for the BBC" and that it does not believe the move of 95 staff will have a major impact on BBCM outputs.
  • On Caversham Park ownership, it states that the BBC has told it that a Land Registry check shows the BBC owns the site, and that the NAO decides which value for money examinations to carry out.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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