Minister lobbied on BBC spin-off

BECTU has urged the Culture Minister to reconsider a new BBC company.

The union has written to DCMS Minister Tessa Jowell with details of a 90% vote against the conversion of BBC Broadcast and Presentation (B&P) into a limited company.

Members in the department, part of the BBC's Television Division, had been asked in a postal ballot if they supported the creation of a new company to offer TV playout services to commercial broadcasters.

The BBC has argued that without limited status B&P would not be able to earn external income without breaching competition laws.

However, BECTU has expressed concerns that the move might be a first step towards privatisation of the department, and has questioned the growth of subsidiary companies at the BBC.

In the last three years, two new companies, Resources Limited and Technology Limited, have joined BBC Worldwide Limited on the Corporation's list of assets.

Without clearance from the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, the BBC would not be able to establish the new B&P company, which managers hope will begin trading in Spring 2002 if the Minister gives the go-ahead.

Less than a year after that, the BBC expects that B&P will begin transferring its playout facilities to a new, purpose-built, complex on the Corporation's White City site, partly funded by a property deal with Land Securities Trillium.

BECTU has been in negotiation with the BBC over the B&P spin-off since summer this year, and a package of employment guarantees won by the union was accepted by members in the postal ballot which turned down the concept of limited status.

Letter to Minister

16th November 2001

Rt Hon Tessa Jowell, MP
Secretary of State
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
LONDON SW1Y 5DH

Dear Ms Jowell,

We are aware that the BBC have made a request to your department to allow their Broadcasting & Presentation Department to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC. BECTU represents the majority of staff employed by Broadcasting & Presentation, and in a ballot which closed last week nearly 90% of the members in Broadcasting & Presentation who voted rejected the principle of changing the department to a wholly-owned subsidiary.

I know that the BBC have said that they want the freedom that alimited company status would give them to increase significantly the amount of commercial work that Broadcasting & Presentation could undertake. Our members are extremely concerned that this would be just a first step to this department being fully privatised, and eventually being taken over by a commercial operation. Many of these staff have worked for the BBC for many years and are totally committed to public service broadcasting and all of its principles, and they do not wish in the future to be working for a totally commercial operation.

In recent years the union has opposed a number of similar requests from the BBC, all of which have been agreed by the current government. One of these in particular, BBC Resources Ltd, has resulted in many of the staff having to be re-transferred back into the BBC, redundancies are still continuing, and quite clearly the commercial plans that the BBC put to the government did not work. Our overall concern remains that the BBC is gradually being broken up, and if you are minded to accept this proposal this would mean that the BBC would have four separate limited companies.

I can confirm that the BBC have given us a number of assurances in relation to the protection of terms and conditions for our members, and these have been accepted by our members in a ballot. However there is no guarantee that these protections would be afforded them if a further sale took place in the future.

I hope you will consider our views before reaching a final decision.

Yours sincerely,

GERRY MORRISSEY
Assistant General Secretary