'Broken' BBC Trust reportedly set for axe with Ofcom to be handed regulation powers as MPs prepare to probe executive exit pay
Ministers are reportedly set to axe the ‘broken’ BBC Trust as it continues to come under scrutiny over executive pay-offs at the corporation.
According to the Sunday Times, ministers will hand regulation of the corporation to Ofcom as it quotes a senior source within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as saying, “It is clear that the trust, which is both a cheerleader for the BBC and its regulator, does not work. There are contradictions.”
Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten and former director general Mark Thomson will tomorrow face questions from the Commons Public Accounts Committee tomorrow over their knowledge over executive exit payments.
The BBC has faced criticism over the level of exit payments made to executives at the corporation, including Thomson’s successor George Entwistle who resigned after less than two months to receive a settlement of £450,000 as a result.
Lord Patten has previously claimed that he was not aware of the packages, however Thomson, now chief executive of The New York Times, has claimed that the opposite is true.
Patten will be fighting to retain his position when he faces questions over exactly what he did know in regaurds to the exit payments being made.
He has already responded to Thomson’s accusations, stating that he has ’no concerns at all” about them.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Conservative member of the Committee, Chris Heaton-Harris, described governance of the BBC by the Trust as ‘broken’ claiming that it had “clearly failed to adequately scrutinise the way the corporation has been spending public money.”
The BBC Trust was established in 2007 as a body which would govern the organisation and protect the interests of the licence fee payer.