Dear Prudence

BBC staff who have been or are about to be made redundant will not be cheered by the news from the National Audit Office that Auntie underspent against forecasts by at least 3 per cent in each of the past four years.

In four years, the BBC spent £13.5 billion pounds. Whilst accepting that the underspend may not be totally cumulative, over the four most recent years it missed forecasts by a total of £684m.   On the 2012 figures alone, there was an underspend of £154m - enough to run a second local radio network if you wanted, or sufficient to double the budgets of BBC Four and Radio 3.

Still, it's good to know that the BBC has earned NAO praise for turning to the wisdom of its non-executive directors, such as Dr Mike Lynch, who takes an assured line on finance in this BBC News interview posted overnight.