Dyke Brands BBC Governance Plans ‘A Complete Mess’

Former BBC director general Greg Dyke has branded Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell’s proposals for the future government of the BBC as “a complete mess”, stating that they have the potential to be “totally confusing” and will not deliver the structural separation between delivery and oversight which is required.

Writing in the Independent‘s Media Weekly today, Dyke states that, while the Culture Secretary’s decision to keep the licence fee in place to provide the BBC’s funding should be welcomed, the revised structure of its governance and the creation of the BBC Trust makes little sense.

The former BBC boss stated: “The proposals are a mess because it is hard to see how they meet the aims of a more accountable BBC. The governors would disappear to be replaced by a BBC Trust, which is not really a trust at all, and the BBC would be run by an executive board which , for the first time, would have non-executive directors as members.”

He added: “In these circumstances the real power would be with the executive board and yet the proposal is that it would be chaired by the director general. But he works for the chairman of the trust, who would be Michael Grade, so how would it be different? And what would happen when the executive board – with non-executives – disagrees with the trust board? Where would that leave the director general? Would he take orders from his board, the trust board or Michael Grade?”

The proposals, made last week by Tessa Jowell, aimed to remove the conflicting responsibilities of managing the BBC and holding it to account from any one party (see Governors Axed As BBC Charter Renewed For 10 Years). However, Dyke believes that the plans fall short of achieving their goal. He said: “It has the potential to be totally confusing, and it is very difficult to see how all this would give us the clear structural separation between delivery and oversight, which is what the Green Paper says the Government wants.”

However, the former director general claimed that the proposals were unlikely to be passed by the House of Lords, as the Liberal and Conservative majority would require “a much clearer separation between delivery and oversight”. Dyke also suggests that Downing Street may not approve the proposals, leading to further changes to their structure.

Despite his negative observations, Dyke is welcoming of Tessa Jowell’s continued support for the licence fee, stating: “The important thing is that the Government is committed to the licence fee, committed to a properly funded BBC, and committed to the BBC continuing to broadcast all of its current services. For that we should be grateful to Tessa Jowell.”

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk

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