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BBC: Chairmanship (Communications Committee Report)

My Lords, it has been a great pleasure to continue my interest in media matters under the eyes and experienced chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Fowler: first, during the ad hoc Select Committee’s examination of the BBC charter review process; and, since then, on the reconvened Communications Select Committee, whose main current project concerns media ownership and the news. The very fact that a number of members appointed to the Communications Select Committee had also served on the previous committee on the BBC charter meant that the committee was ideally placed, as an initial short project, to examine the unexpected and, in my mind, rather shocking resignation of the then chairman of BBC, Michael Grade, and to help to identify possible lessons that might be learnt for future such appointments. As we say in the report, the chairman of the BBC is not subject to any formal contract because the chairman—and, rather surprisingly, members of the new BBC trust—are considered officeholders, not employees. Therefore, there was, for example, no ““non-compete”” clause to prevent Mr Grade accepting the offer to chair ITV, the BBC's main competitor. Mr Grade certainly made it clear in his evidence to the committee that, once in the saddle at ITV, he would not have acted on any confidential BBC information in his possession. However, not unnaturally, many licence fee payers would have been less than fully convinced by that. The mere fact of his leaving the BBC without a chairman before the final licence fee funding had been agreed would, if nothing else, have weakened the BBC's negotiating position and, for some, Mr Grade’s credibility. This has been mentioned by other noble Lords and will no doubt be commented on by noble Lords, but I draw particular attention to our recommendation to include a six-month non-compete clause in the contract of any future appointment to the chairmanship of the BBC. I think that we should still stick to the six months as being a reasonable period, although I hear what my chairman said, and always listen very attentively to that. That, and other details that we recommend for increased transparency about who chairs and serves on the Secretary of State's appointment panel and about the process to be followed will, I hope, also be accepted. There is very little doubt that many of the procedures adopted in the latest appointment process were worrying. For example, if it had turned out that the Secretary of State’s own added candidate had been chosen, as referred to in chapter 3, paragraph 22, that might have caused quite an eyebrow lifting. The appointment of Sir Michael Lyons was certainly appropriate. I was personally very impressed by his performance but, as we say in chapter 3, paragraph 18: "““We do not believe the quality of the outcome validates the process””." I also hope that the recommendation to involve both Houses in pre-appointment parliamentary scrutiny for the chairmanship of the BBC will, on reflection, be accepted. I say that with some reluctance myself, for my view has always been that the last thing needed by or for the BBC was further parliamentary involvement or oversight. The BBC has always managed to stand up to ministerial pressure from all political parties. However, post-Hutton and the subsequent BBC resignations, events have sadly changed all that. Now I feel that there must be a role for both Houses of Parliament for, in today's world, those procedures are more relevant. They also take account of the newly shared responsibilities between the BBC executive board and the BBC trust—about which we overheard in considerable detail, when important points have been made—and, perhaps especially, the trust’s enhanced accountability to the licence fee payer, as well as its additional regulatory responsibilities. I have one more concern, which is that there may still be other appointments like those of the BBC which still do not fall completely within the scrutiny of the Commissioner for Public Appointments and/or follow Nolan principles. I asked the Library about that and it kindly sent me details of current practices, which I feel should reassure me. Is the BBC really the only remaining body that appears to have felt it safe to assume and to rely on honourable behaviour by a ““great and good”” incumbent, rather than spelling out what would not be acceptable behaviour? I hope that we will get some more detailed answers to that but, be that as it may, personally I remain confident that the long-standing central sense of purpose and integrity of the BBC remains intact. There have been some recent problems. We may feel obliged to take some steps to buttress the BBC in the way that we have been discussing today, but we can still assume with some confidence that those qualities that have helped build the BBC as the great institution that it was and is still is today.