Mr Martin Caldwell
Via email: [FOI #6618 email]
27th February 2009
Dear Mr Caldwell,
Freedom of Information request – RFI20090150
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) dated 23rd
January, requesting the following;
1. For each of the last 12 years, the cost of the Director General's Children in Need parties in
Television Centre, and how these parties were funded?
2. If funded by private sponsors, who are those sponsors, and do they have, or are they
bidding for any contracts with the BBC?
3. A guest list for last year's event.
In recent years it has been customary for the Director-General or another senior BBC executive
to host hospitality at Television Centre on Children in Need appeal night. The purpose of this
event is to engage with and thank key supporters who have helped the charity achieve their
valuable goals in the past year, and to help Children in Need promote understanding of its aims
and objectives to a range of external stakeholders.
With reference to question 1, records from 2004 onwards are outlined below and include costs
for studio hire, catering and other associated costs. These events were funded by the BBC. No
funds donated or raised by the public were used to fund these events. Every penny donated or
fundraised by the public goes to support projects working with disadvantaged children in the UK.
Year
Costs
2004 £45,377.00
2005 £56,698.72
2006 £58,468.46
2007 £54,907.76
2008 £59,713.87
Please note that under section 12 of the Act, we are allowed to refuse to handle the request if it
would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been set by the Regulations (SI
2004/3244) as being £450 (equivalent to two and a half days work, at an hourly rate of £25). As
records prior to 2004 were held in various areas of the BBC, in order to retrieve information
1996 to 2003, it would be necessary to search all of the BBC’s financial records for those years. I
estimate that this would take more than 2.5 days
With reference to question 2, as already stated, the event is entirely funded by BBC internal
budgets and not by private sponsors.
With reference to question 3, please find attached a list of people who accepted an invitation to
the event in 2008. Most were invited with a guest. Approximately 1,000 guests attended the
evening which ran from 8pm till midnight. Attendees included corporate and individual fundraisers,
stakeholders associated with children’s issues, sector partners, performers and artists involved in
helping Children in Need throughout the year and those involved in the making of the appeal night
live show, and some of children and their families who have been helped by the charity and
contributed to the programme.
We are careful about ensuring that any BBC corporate event provides value for money and in
recent years we have decreased the amount of corporate hospitality. We intend to reduce both
the number of events and spend on corporate hospitality still further in 2009/10, and plans for the
Children in Need appeal night event are under review.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior
manager or legal adviser. Please contact us at the address above, explaining what you would like us
to review and including your reference number. If you are not satisfied with the internal review,
you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone
01625 545 700 or see http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Yours sincerely
Sarah Yassien
Programme Manager
Marketing, Communications and Audiences
