THE BBC must devolve more control to its Scottish headquarters to provide the “substantial change” needed to be “relevant to the people of Scotland” according to MSPs.
Bosses must tackle the “London bias” which exists within the organisation, according to a report released today by Holyrood’s education and culture committee.
MSPs questioned the service’s current commitment to programming outside the capital and claimed not enough had been done to encourage a thriving broadcasting sector in Scotland.
This is the first time the Scottish Parliament has had an official role in the charter renewal process of the BBC. Among the committee’s key concerns is an apparent reluctance to produce accounts and sufficient financial information on BBC Scotland, with MSPs claiming that lack of transparency made it “impossible to associate spending with the delivery of the BBC’s services in Scotland”.
Currently, the BBC gets around £323 million of its £3.7 billion licence fee income from Scotland, but only £200m is spent on Scottish-made output, and the committee said that more detailed information must be provided in order to “hold the corporation to account”.
Nicola Sturgeon has previously said she believes all of the money raised in Scotland should be spent locally, a call backed by culture secretary Fiona Hyslop. Although the committees did not match her call for a federal structure within the BBC, Hyslop said the report “adds considerable weight to the growing consensus for substantial change to the way the BBC operates in Scotland”.
Committee convener Stewart Maxwell said: “Our committee wants the BBC to be relevant to the people of Scotland and the charter renewal is an opportunity to ensure Scotland’s voice is heard.
“However, it is clear there needs to be changes, something which the BBC itself has recognised. There must be greater decentralisation of decision making, commissioning and budgets to Scotland.”
A spokesman for BBC Scotland said: “decisions about Scottish services should be made in Scotland”.
He continued: “We’ve already announced ongoing reviews on commissioning and news provision, and we have also said we want to better represent and portray Scottish audiences across all BBC services.”
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