MINISTER URGED TO RECONSIDER BBC'S B&P PROPOSAL

BECTU have urged the Culture Minister to reconsider the formation of another BBC limited company.
The union has written to Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) Minister Tessa Jowell with details of a 90 per cent vote against the conversion of BBC Broadcast and Presentation (B&P) into a limited company.
Members in the department, part of the BBC's Television Division, had been asked in a postal ballot if they supported the creation of a new company to offer TV playout services to commercial broadcasters.
The BBC have argued that without limited status B&P would not be able to earn external income without breaching competition laws.
However, BECTU have expressed concerns that the move might be a first step towards privatisation of the department, and have questioned the growth of subsidiary companies at the BBC.
In the last three years, two new companies, Resources Limited and Technology Limited, have joined BBC Worldwide on the Corporation's list of assets.
Without clearance from the DCMS the BBC would not be able to establish the new B&P company, which managers hope will begin trading in Spring 2002 if the Minister gives the go-ahead.
Less than a year after that, the BBC expects that B&P will begin transferring its playout facilities to a new, purpose-built, complex on the Corporation's White City site, partly funded by a property deal with Land Securities Trillium.
BECTU have been in negotiations with the BBC over the B&P spin-off since summer this year, and a package of employment guarantees won by the union was accepted by members in the postal ballot which turned down the concept of limited status. (CD)