Tilth

Some bits of fresh soil recently ploughed up by the shares of Freedom of Information requests...

"As part of supporting individual development needs, the BBC sponsors the training and provides links to the Non-Executive Directors Association (NEDA) to help individuals to identify, prepare for and thrive in Non-Executive Director opportunities. Access to this development is managed through an application and approval process. For the financial year 2015/2016 the cost to the BBC for sponsoring Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) is £11,000."

"How many public relations agencies, are currently employed by the BBC ?"

"BBC Communications has not employed any PR agencies in 15/16 or the previous two financial years. As such expenditure by BBC Communications on PR agencies is nil."

(Not really an answer to the question as posed....)

"The size of the press office is determined by the large volume of media inquiries about the BBC from local, national and international journalists and the amount of information demanded by journalists. To meet this demand, there are 13 full-time staff and freelance staff are used on an occasional basis. The staffing and associated day to day running costs for the corporate press office in 2014/15 were approximately £650k.

"If you plan to write a story using this information please include the following statement.

" A BBC spokesman said: 'The size of the corporate press office is based on the volume of inquiries about the BBC from local, national and international journalists and costs are kept to a minimum.'