London Letter: SNP’s new breakaway push – for BBC Scotland

How much is Eastenders worth? Or Newsnight, Panorama, the entire output of Radio Four, and the BBC’s various orchestras and choirs? These are among the questions arising from the Scottish government’s proposal to give BBC Scotland full control of the £323 million (€418 million) in licence fee revenue raised in Scotland.

The proposal is one of a number of suggestions in a policy paper published this week, which calls for a fully federalised BBC, with power over programming and budgets devolved to Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. It calls for a new, Scottish version of the Six O’Clock News, a new Scottish television and radio channel, and a semi-autonomous board to hold BBC Scotland to account.

“This policy would also address the issues the BBC currently faces in terms of the level of engagement with viewers and the degree to which they feel represented by the output of the BBC, which is at less than 50 per cent in Scotland and is also at a relatively low level in the northern half of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A higher level of autonomy over commissioning and editorial decisions, as well as the running of the organisation in each unit of a decentralised structure, would allow for more representative decisions to be taken with a greater degree of input from members of any board or panel representative of that area,” the paper says.

In recognition of its independence from the government of the day, the BBC was created by a royal charter rather than an act of parliament and that charter is renewed every 10 years, with the next renewal due at the end of 2016. Charter renewal is a worrisome time for the BBC as the corporation watches its future toyed with by politicians, some of whom may nurse grudges against it.

Guarenteed applause

For the first time, the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been invited to take part in the charter renewal process, an opportunity the

Scottish National Party

(SNP) has taken up with enthusiasm. It is an article of faith within the SNP that the BBC played a biased role during the independence referendum and criticism of the broadcaster is guaranteed applause at party conferences.

“In the period following the referendum on Scottish independence, there has been detailed scrutiny of the news and current affairs coverage in Scotland.  A common thread through this discussion has been the assertion that the current coverage of both national and international news and current affairs by BBC Scotland is insufficient in both scope, scale and quality of output, with audience satisfaction figures at little more than 50 per cent,” the paper says.

“A more comprehensive approach to news with a greater voice for Scottish journalists on Scottish issues in the UK network as well as on national and international stories for the Scottish network cannot now be resisted and is a change which does not require changes in the charter.”

The BBC is reviewing its news services and director general Tony Hall told Scottish parliamentarians that he is open to the idea of a "Scottish Six" news bulletin. Other suggestions in the policy paper are also appealing, such as decentralising the allocation of AM, FM and DAB frequencies.

Audience penetration

“In Orkney and Shetland the DAB frequency carries Radio 1 Extra which has a limited audience, whilst Radio Scotland is not made available on the DAB platform despite much higher audience penetration in these areas,” it says.

The proposal to give full control of Scottish licence fee revenue to BBC Scotland is more problematic, not least because it includes a suggestion for an "internal market" for programmes involving the four parts of the United Kingdom. Under the proposal, BBC Scotland would pay an annual fee for access to BBC network programming but would have greater freedom to opt out of the network and would not have to pay for any programming it did not use.

The paper insists that the Scottish government stressed is “very strongly committed to the editorial independence of the BBC” but it wants to create a new board for BBC Scotland which would be accountable to the Scottish parliament.

“A key part of this decentralised approach is to bring the accountability structures for the BBC similarly into line with the new political position of the UK and closer to audiences in the nations and regions,” it says.