Grade maintains reformed BBC governance 'is working'

Chairman of the BBC Governors Michael Grade has said that the BBC's new system of governance was delivering on changes to ensure the BBC is effectively governed and regulated.
Media watchdog, Ofcom, has declared it is to intervene in the current debate on BBC governance. Some fear that the media watchdog is seeking to expand its remit to include the BBC, which has not been placed under the wing of the Ofcom and has been overseen by the BBC's own Board of Governors.
Defending his structural reforms of the BBC governance system, Grade said: "It was clear to me on applying for this job that an urgent programme of reform was needed to give everyone new confidence that the Governors could represent the public interest and become sensitive to the complex, multi-media world it now shares with so many private-sector players.
"I made this absolutely clear in all the conversations I had with Whitehall before I accepted the job. I spelled out that what I wanted to do as chairman would involve significant structural change to the BBC's governance structures and behaviour."
He said it was unfortunate that the Charter review debate about governance was coinciding with the implementation of the new system, rather than after the reforms were complete.
Describing this as an "accident of timing", eight months on from his arrival as Chairman, Michael Grade said that the new system was addressing the inherent problems of the old system.
"Our new system is up and running. Although not complete in every detail yet, it is delivering," he said. "It's already clear that it does enable us to engage closely enough to scrutinise management activity, while at the same time giving us enough distance and formality of process to guarantee objectivity on behalf of licence-fee payers. I really do believe it answers the material criticisms levelled at the old system."
Grade said the Board of Governors remained open to proposals designed to improve the system further, but said these should be tested against five principles:

• Independence of the BBC;
• Stewardship of public money;
• Accountability to licence fee payers;
• Clarity of roles;
• Practicality.

In the wake of the Hutton report, which was highly critical of the BBC's close relationship between executive management and the Governors, a new BBC Governance unit has been set up that is both independent of, and located apart from, senior management.
Grade said that in addition to other changes the BBC Governors would in future make more use of independent external advisers.
(SP)