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Future of the BBC

I was coming to that, my Lords. The Secretary of State has identified aspects of the BBC that he thinks should be looked at in the charter review. He is not advocating significant and important change at this point. He is indicating to the BBC that he has reservations about the present structure which he fully appreciates are about the future of the BBC. The noble Lord, Lord Fowler, indicates that there are considered solutions to these issues. He certainly has a perspective, but he will also know that a range of possibilities for BBC governance were put before the review. The question of how one regulates the BBC has produced a range of different propositions. All the Secretary of State is doing at this stage is indicating to the BBC that the trust has to look to its laurels with regard to the way that it governs the BBC. Its performance will be under scrutiny, particularly in these times of straitened circumstances in general finances. There is no doubt, though, from the charter review that we carried out, that the trust model was the one that was advocated and became the one that should be chosen. We should give it time to see how it performs. The Secretary of State is indicating areas in which he thinks the trust should pursue areas of reform, and I have indicated one. The trust has been concerned about the extent to which the BBC, in certain of its financial activities and its use of public moneys—the licence fee, of course, is a public money—should recognise that the National Audit Office has a role to play with regard to that matter. I am defending the BBC Trust against a background where it is showing its recognition of, and willingness to deal with, the challenges to the BBC that are thrown up from time to time, which are inevitable in the role that the BBC plays in broadcasting. Within that framework, the Secretary of State is playing his part in ensuring that the trust is up to the mark. We have had an interesting debate about the future of the BBC, which is destined—in fact, the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, has almost ensured this through his committee—to be at least an annual part of the deliberations in the Chamber. In addition, we have the advantage at the moment of the Bill that my noble friend Lord Mandelson introduced yesterday on the digital economy, which inevitably impacts on significant areas in which the BBC has a real interest and on the BBC itself. I have no doubt that many of the issues that have been raised today will be considered in fuller detail in those debates too. On that basis, I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, will feel that he has given the issue a considerable, important and effective airing today against a background whereon it has been clear that, on nearly every side of the Chamber, support in the House for the BBC is very strong.