“If Jeremy Vine is discussing 
something that’s happened in 
the last few days he has both 
sides of the argument and he 
sits in the middle and I have yet 
to hear him make a judgement, 
he keeps himself very impartial 
which I think he should anyway.” 

News and current affairs programming on BBC Radio 2. Male, age 20–39,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, contributing to Trust consultation on service licences.



The BBC Trust 

What it is and what it does


The Trust works for the public who pay for the BBC.
We listen to a wide range of voices, seeking to understand
all opinions and expectations to inform our judgements.
We ensure the BBC is independent, innovative and efficient;
a creative and economic force for good in the UK, and for


the UK internationally. 

We are the sovereign body of the BBC, its 
independent Trustees acting in the public interest. 

We aim to ensure that: 

the BBC remains independent, resisting 

pressure and influence from any source 

the BBC’s management delivers public value 
by providing distinctive services of the highest 
quality to all the people and all the communities 
across the UK 

the BBC contributes to the standing of the 
UK in the world, to the economy and to 
British culture.


Our tasks are to make sure that: 

the BBC meets its mission to inform, educate 
and entertain with ambition and fulfils the 
Public Purposes laid down in its Royal Charter 

the BBC’s management has clear priorities 
and is using its resources well, providing quality, 
value for money and efficiency and reaching 
all audiences 

the BBC stays at the forefront of developing 
new services for the public, encouraging choice 
and innovation in the media marketplace 
without stifling private enterprise or initiative 

the BBC’s journalism meets the highest standards 
of accuracy and impartiality to sustain public trust 

the BBC promotes its reputation and values 

around the world. 

We will achieve this by: 

listening to the public and inviting their views 

in all their diversity 

prizing the professionalism, innovation and
creativity of BBC staff and everyone who
contributes to the BBC


vigorously defending the independence of 

the BBC 

making judgements that will safeguard 
the BBC’s high quality, audience reach and
independence over the long term 


making sure our own processes are open 

and transparent 

rigorously holding the BBC’s management 

to account. 

Public Purposes 

The Charter and Agreement sets out six 

Public Purposes for the BBC.These are: 

sustaining citizenship and civil society 

promoting education and learning 

stimulating creativity and cultural excellence 

representing the UK, its nations, regions 

and communities 

bringing the UK to the world and the 

world to the UK 

in promoting its other purposes, helping 
to deliver to the public the benefit of 
emerging communications technologies 
and services and, in addition, taking 
a leading role in the switchover to 
digital television. 

Governance tools 

The Charter and Agreement gives us governance 
tools to help us undertake our key tasks: 

Purpose remits: For each BBC Public Purpose 
we published a purpose remit defining our 
priorities for the Executive and setting out 
how we will judge performance. 

Service licences: Based on the purpose remits 
we issue service licences.These set out for 
each BBC service its remit, headline budget, 

The Trust is the 
sovereign body of the 
BBC. Its independent 
Trustees act in the 
public interest 

The Trust is 
committed to 
openness.You can 
find out more about 
how the Trust 
operates, and the 
decisions it makes, 
on bbc.co.uk/bbctrust 

Part One:BBCAnnual Report and Accounts 2006/2007 | 9 


The BBC Trust 

What it is and what it does 

There is more 
information on how 
the Executive manage 
the operations of the 
BBC within PartTwo 

The memorandum 
of understanding 
between the Trust 
and Ofcom is 
available on 
bbc.co.uk/bbctrust 

and how it should contribute to delivering 
the Public Purposes.We consult publicly 
before we set purpose remits or issue new 
service licences and, once adopted, monitor 
performance against them. 

We also approve the Executive’s annual
Statements of Programme Policy, ensuring
these are consistent with service licences,
and monitor performance against them.


Public Value Tests: Before we decide whether 
to approve or reject a management proposal 
to launch a new service or make a significant 
change to an existing service, we undertake 
a Public Value Test, which includes a market 
impact assessment undertaken by Ofcom 
(see box below).This helps us form our 
judgement of whether or not the proposal 
is in the public interest (for more on Public 
Value Tests, see page 36). 

Relationship with management 

We do not manage the day-to-day operations 
of the BBC.This is the job of the Executive, 
led by the Director-General. Our role is to 
set priorities for the Executive and ensure they 
are properly delivered within agreed policies 
and budgets. 

The Director-General, who is appointed by 
us, is the BBC’s editor-in-chief and chairs the 
Executive Board.The responsibilities of the 
Executive Board include: 

delivering BBC services in accordance with
Trust strategies 


directing the BBC’s editorial and creative output 

operational management of the BBC 

conducting the operational financial
management of the BBC to ensure value 
for money 


accounting to the Trust for its own
performance and for the performance 
of its subsidiaries.


The Executive Board includes non-executive 
directors whose appointments are approved 
by us. 

Other supervisory functions 

We have a number of supervisory and regulatory 
functions – the key ones are set out below: 

Value for money: We approve the 
BBC’s high-level strategy and budgets and 
also commission regular value-for-money 
investigations into specific areas of BBC activity. 

Editorial: The Executive draws up editorial 
guidelines setting out the standards BBC 
content should meet.We approve these 
guidelines and any amendments, and 
we use them to monitor the BBC’s editorial 
performance.We do not vet programmes 
before transmission.The Director-General, 
as the BBC’s editor-in-chief, is ultimately 
responsible for all editorial decisions.We 
consider complaints on appeal after the BBC’s 
complaints process has been exhausted. 

Complaints and appeals: We set the
framework within which the Executive 
handles complaints and, where appropriate,
we hear appeals.


Commercial and fair trading oversight: 

We ensure the BBC complies with its fair 
trading policy, and that the Executive properly 
addresses key operating risks.We also exercise 
oversight of the BBC’s commercial services. 

The Trust’s relationship with Ofcom 

The Trust is a supervisory body with 
some regulatory functions. It shares some 
regulatory responsibility for the BBCwith 
Ofcom. In some cases, the Trust works 
directly with Ofcom, principally in the 
Joint Steering Group for market impact 
assessments. In other cases the Trust and 
Ofcom have different responsibilities. 

Ofcom regulates broadcasters including the 
BBC through its Broadcasting Code which 
sets standards, eg on Harm and Offence, 
for broadcasters.The Trust regulates BBC 
output in terms of impartiality and accuracy 
and is the final arbiter within the BBC 
for editorial complaints. Ofcom and the 
Trust have signed a memorandum of 
understanding as to how they will work 
together on these and on other issues 
where they have regulatory responsibilities. 

10 | Part One:BBCAnnual Report and Accounts 2006/2007 


Listening to the public 

One of our key principles is that we will always 
act in an open and transparent way.The issues 
we deal with are often complex.We have to 
consider the views – often the competing views 
– of a wide range of individuals and organisations. 
We will always publish the evidence that has 
informed our independent judgements – and fully 
explain our decisions. 

For example, when we approved the Executive’s 
proposals to develop and launch Freesat 
(see page 30) we published all the evidence 
we had taken into account. It is available on our 
website, bbc.co.uk/trust, and it includes a number 
of independent reports on key aspects of the 
proposal, plus contributions from organisations 
that commented on the proposal. 

We also consulted widely on our draft purpose 
remits and service licences which we published 
in January 2007.We will use the findings from 
these consultations to inform our work in 
finalising these governance tools and in setting 
BBCpriorities. 

Service licences consultation 

Service licences are a key tool used by the 
Trust to define BBC services and monitor 
their performance.We consulted publicly 
on the first licences, which came into 
operation on 1 January 2007.We asked 
if the licences adequately described BBC 
services as they were when the Trust came 
into being – and whether their content was 
appropriate to allow the Trust to govern the 
BBC’s UK public services. 

We received a good level of response 
from the commercial sector and other 
organisations, although rather fewer 
responses from individual members of 
the public than in our other consultations. 
In anticipation of this we had commissioned 
focus group research across the UK to 
assess the opinions of the public. 

We will publish the individual responses 
and a summary of all the consultation
responses.We are now considering
whether to vary these initial licences,
informed by the responses received.


Purpose remits consultation 

Our research agency conducted a 
very large audience survey in February 
2007, interviewing around 4,500 adults. 
We wanted their views on the BBC 
Public Purposes – more specifically, how 
important they felt each Purpose was, 
and how well they believed the BBC was 
performing in delivering them.The findings 
will feed into our work on developing 
purpose remits.These will make clear what 
we expect the BBC Executive to deliver 
in order to fulfil the expectations of licence 
fee payers and the Public Purposes laid 
down by Parliament. 

We will place particular importance on 
gaining insights into areas where audiences 
feel dissatisfied with what the BBC offers 
them now, and where people feel the 
BBC could do better. An overview of the 
research will be published with the revised 
purpose remits later this year. 

Early findings show that audiences place 
particular importance on education and 
news as BBC priorities.Where people 
feel the greatest gap exists between 
importance and performance is in the area 
of creativity and originality. Audiences are 
telling us loud and clear that they want fresh 
and new ideas and a wide range of enjoyable 
and entertaining programmes – and that 
they feel the BBC could do better here. 

Looking forward 

In the year ahead we will continue to work 
energetically on behalf of licence fee payers and 
complete the building of the new governance 
system that gives BBC audiences a powerful voice 
in contributing to our decisions on BBC priorities. 

There is more detail on our plans for 2007/2008 
on page 51 and on our website. 

The Trust will always 
seek to understand 
the views of its 
audiences before 
taking its decisions 

Audiences are telling 
us loud and clear that 
they want fresh and 
new ideas – and they 
feel the BBC could do 
better here 

In the year ahead we 
will work energetically 
on behalf of the public 
enabling their views to 
inform and contribute 
to our decisions on 
BBC priorities 

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