Delivering Quality First - public consultation

In December 2010 the Trust published a strategy for the BBC for the remainder of the Charter period. This strategy was developed in light of the funding settlement agreed with the Government in October 2010 that sees the licence free frozen at its current level until March 2017 and the BBC assuming additional funding responsibilities.

The Trust tasked BBC management with developing a plan for how to organise the Corporation in light of this strategy and the funding settlement. The Executive delivered a set of proposals to the Trust, entitled Delivering Quality First, at the end of September 2011. These set out a planned programme of efficiencies together with proposed changes to the scope of the services that the BBC provides to audiences.

The Trust carried out a public consultation on the proposed scope changes to the BBC. This ran from 6 October to 21 December 2011. The Trust also commissioned Ernst & Young to conduct a review of the proposed efficiency programme.

The Trust published its interim findings in January 2012.

What happens next

We are currently conducting detailed analysis of the responses to the consultation and will use these, alongside a range of other data, including our consultations as part of the service reviews of BBC Local Radio and the Asian Network, when considering the proposals we have received from BBC management. We plan to publish our final conclusions in late spring 2012.

We will also consider if there is a need to trigger further formal regulatory processes as set out in the Charter and Agreement. This may lead to Public Value Tests which would involve further public consultation on specific significant proposals to individual BBC services.