BBC Trust

Public Value has been much-debated in academic and policy-making circles. What's different about the BBC Trust is that the BBC’s Royal Charter asks the Trust to apply it in a practical decision-making tool – to assess the quality of the BBC's proposals for new services and for changes to existing services.  We have used our Public Value Test, for instance, in our decision to approve the BBC iPlayer and we have used it in our decision to reject BBC proposals for new online local video services.

This book combines some of the theory on this subject with some thoughts and reflections on the BBC Trust's own practical experience. It aims to add to our collective understanding of how we might improve processes of decision-making, and particularly the transparency of that decision-making, across the public sector.

About the authors

Diane Coyle was Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust. She runs an economic consultancy and was for eight years a member of the Competition Commission.

Christopher Woolard was Deputy Director at the BBC Trust and is now a Partner and member of the Executive Committee at Ofcom.