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Lord Birt to give evidence to BBC inquiry

14 July 2015

On Tuesday 14 July the House of Lords Communications Committee continues with its inquiry into the BBC and its public purposes by questioning Lord Birt, former Director General of the BBC.

Background

Lord Birt said, after a statement in the House reporting that the BBC had agreed to cover the cost of free TV licences, that it was a "truly shocking announcement", and that the independence of the BBC "was breached in the previous Parliament … This has happened again. This is taking a huge slice out of the BBC's budget. Again, it has happened with no public discussion of any kind. This Government and the previous Government have set a very dangerous precedent."

Witnesses

Tuesday 14 July 2015, Committee Room 2, Palace of Westminster

At 3.30 pm

  • Simone Pennant, Founder and Director, TV Collective
  • Laura Mansfield, Chair, Pact
  • Emily Davidson, Director of Policy, Pact

At 4.30 pm

  • Diane Coyle, former Vice-Chair of the BBC Trust
  • Lord Birt, former Director-General of the BBC

Possible questions

The Committee will explore with the witnesses issues including how well the BBC is meeting the public purposes; should the purposes be changed; if there are any areas/genres of particular concern, and whether they feel that cuts to the BBC would have a detrimental impact in the fulfilment of the public purposes.

Issues that will be discussed include:

  • their involvement in the process of developing the public purposes, and the benefits and drawbacks of using this system to measure performance
  • how the BBC can ensure it still delivers, or satisfies, public purposes, if it is to cut services or move them from broadcast to online
  • how the public purposes work to safeguard the future position of the BBC
  • the process by which the licence fee settlement has been reached.

 Further information

Image: Parliamentary copyright