BBC Trust

Today, the Government published the final BBC Charter and Agreement.

On behalf of the Trustees, Rona Fairhead, Chairman of the BBC Trust said,

"The priority of the Trust has been to listen to the public, and ensure the next Charter provides the content and services they want and love.

The Charter published today achieves that.

It provides a blueprint for a confident, innovative and creatively ambitious BBC, which continues to inform, educate and entertain, and remains free at the point of use.

The BBC’s scope and public purposes are broadly unchanged; it continues to offer something for everyone. And the BBC remains focused on the challenge of representing the whole of the UK and providing ever-improving value for money.

Importantly, this new 11-year Charter helps protect the BBC’s independence by taking debates about its future outside of the electoral cycle; and it establishes a clear new structure for governance and regulation.

While the Government could have gone further in opening up future funding proposals for external scrutiny, we recognise the step forward in the inclusion, for the first time, of a process for setting the licence fee, and the certainty of funding until 2021, including additional money for the World Service.

On behalf of all Trustees, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to share their views – through our two public consultations, the seminars we held around the country and the research we commissioned.

You have given the BBC and its new Board a clear mandate that they must now put into action, and a clear responsibility to protect the BBC’s independence, and put you - our audience - at the heart of all decision-making."