Hard board

Highlights from the minutes of the BBC Board meeting on 26th January 2023, with commentary

There were no conflicts of interest declared. The Chairman briefed the Board on the issues that had been raised with regard to his appointment and his upcoming appearance at the DCMS Select Committee.

There's no need for Richard Sharp to declare repeatedly that he calls Boris Johnson 'Al'.

The Board noted the Matters Arising paper. Directors discussed the response to the recently announced changes to local radio output. 

Yep, that's it. That's the whole minute on the topic. No public record of dissent at turning local radio regional after 2pm. 

The news of Ken Bruce’s decision to leave the BBC had been met with sadness but the Radio 2 team were working on a replacement. 

Again, no record of a discussion about whether or not Radio 2 management had handled this, and other departures, in a way that the Board thought wise.

Corporate Security were carrying out a full investigation into the presence of a mobile phone which had been taped to the set of Match of the Day ahead of the Wolves v Liverpool FA Cup match and interrupted the programme.

Eventually, Corporate Security will get to the bottom of this one...

The Board discussed an update on the progress that had been made with plans to build an inclusive, accountable and high performing culture to support the delivery of the BBC’s Value for All strategy. The update set out the work done over the last two years in improving performance management and staff development; in shared values and behaviours, and with internal communications and staff engagement. Directors noted the improvement in the scores of the related indexes in the staff survey.

Come off it.

The Board noted an update on plans for the BBC’s classical music output

Yes, they were all complicit, and should all apologise