Jesse Norman
Main Page: Jesse Norman (Conservative - Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Mr Whittingdale
No, that is not quite correct. Six members of the board—the chairman, the deputy chairman, and one non-executive director from each of the four nations of the UK—will be appointed by the Government, using the public appointments process, but the size of the board will be for the BBC to decide. Our proposals exactly match the recommendations of Sir David Clementi, who suggested that the board could contain between 12 and 14 members, and that it should be for the BBC to decide. The BBC will determine the number of additional non-executive directors as well as the split between executive directors and NEDs on the board, which will comprise a total board membership of between 12 and 14.
Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)
On behalf of my constituents in Herefordshire perhaps I may gently correct my beloved colleague from the Scottish National party, the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (John Nicolson), on the identity of my constituency.
I congratulate the Secretary of State on this White Paper. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee will be scrutinising the detail, but I welcome the recognition of the BBC’s important achievements, public service ethos, and potential as a global broadcaster. I also welcome the fact that the White Paper has incorporated recommendations we have made on the unitary board, regulation of Ofcom, the 11-year charter, and the National Audit Office.
However, we did identify issues about the culture of the BBC. I do not know whether the Secretary of State saw the excellent article in The Guardian today by Lenny Henry about black and minority ethnic representation, on which the BBC has historically been weak, but I very much welcome what has been said. Will the Secretary of State say a little more about how that will be enforced, and whether there might be a specific duty on Ofcom to keep an eye of those aspects of the charter in particular?
Mr Whittingdale
I am extremely grateful to the Chairman of the Select Committee for his welcome for our proposals. It is absolutely right that we looked carefully at the recommendations in the report the Committee produced under his chairmanship, as indeed the Government examined the proposals in the report produced under the previous Chairman—both were highly influential. On his specific point, as I have made clear, the Government believe that diversity should be a central priority of the BBC, which is why, for the first time, we are enshrining it in the public purposes. Precisely how the BBC goes about delivering that is a matter for the BBC, but because it is now within the public purposes, it will be for the external regulator, Ofcom, to determine whether it is delivering on that purpose.