Gender balanced, but hardly diverse. The panel charged with recommending the next Chair of the BBC is (officially) Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary at the DCMS, and Sir William Fittall, a retired civil servant and Anglican lay reader. Healey was captain of the Magdalen College Oxford winning University Challenge team in 1998. Sir William (Christ Church, Oxford) settles disputes about Bishops and Vicars.
Sarah and Sir William will receive the applications when they close on 11th November, and will make their first sift based on a cv of not more than two sides of A4, and a supporting statement of not more than three sides of A4.
Mr Cummings doesn't seem to have altered the job specification much. The main point is to "support the Mission and Public Purposes of the BBC, which is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences and all sections of the population through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain." "All sections of the population" seems to biff a subscription-only BBC.
"In accordance with best practice in corporate governance the Chair and the majority of non-executive directors of the BBC Board will be required to be demonstrably independent of the Corporation."
"The criteria by which independence will be assessed will include whether a candidate:
has been an employee of the BBC, or BBC Group within the last five years (does this disqualify Dimbleby ?)
"As part of our due diligence checks we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This will include us undertaking searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information." (This ought to deal with Kelvin MacKenzie).
It has been an absolute pleasure to work with @NickyMorgan01 over the last seven months she has spent as Secretary of State at @DCMS. She should be immensely proud of what she has achieved and I am sure she will continue to be an advocate for our sectors in the @UKHouseofLords pic.twitter.com/M6nWtt0Uze
— Sarah Healey (@PermSecDCMS) February 13, 2020
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