MPs call on BBC to open accounts

MPs have called on the BBC to fully open its accounts to the National Audit Office and said the Blue Peter phone-in scandal demonstrated that the corporation was not doing enough to manage risks.

The Public Accounts Committee said the broadcaster needed to open its books to the National Audit Office (NAO) to demonstrate it was getting value for money from the licence fee.

It made the call in its report on the BBC's management of risks, looking at how it manages potential risks to its reputation from the programmes it broadcasts to the safety of staff deployed around the world.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh MP said: "From the very real threats to the lives of its correspondents in war zones, to the dangers to its reputation of failing to deal fairly with its viewers and listeners, the BBC faces a multiplicity of risks.

"But the corporation and its managers at all levels are simply not doing enough to manage and anticipate those risks. This point was richly demonstrated in the case of the Blue Peter and other phone-in scandals."

He said: "One key risk is that of failing to secure value for money for the licence fee-payer. The BBC's management of that risk would undoubtedly be much the stronger if the NAO were given the same independent rights of access to the corporation as it enjoys to other bodies funded by the public."

The report said the extent to which risk management was embedded across the BBC was patchy.

In the case of the Blue Peter phone-in competition, which landed the BBC a £50,000 fine, the "risks of trying to run a live phone competition were not recognised", the report said.

The independent review commissioned by the BBC "will need to identify the reasons for programme-makers ignoring the BBC's own editorial guidelines and exposing it to significant reputational risks" in the Blue Peter case, it said.

The report added: "There is still no fully satisfactory regime under which the BBC is accountable to Parliament for the value for money with which it spends licence fee payers' money."