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Mr P. Searle
Ema
il: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
03 January 2018
Dear Mr Searle
Freedom of Information request - RFI20171786 Thank you for your request to the BBC of 01 December 2017 seeking the following information
under the Freedom of Information Act 200 (the Act) in relation to the fol owing information:
“I have to ask why the BBC insists on calling itself and ‘an institution’ rather than a ‘Corporation’. It
matters as Corporations pay UK ‘Corporation tax’ and yet the BBC does not (and has not) paid a penny in
UK and overseas earnings. As an ‘Institution’ it may have more merit as it is has been ‘institutionalised’ to
such an extend that the last government requested (under the BBC’s last Charter review 2010) was
concerned about the BBC’s lack of progress re: ‘diversity’. However the real problem is not multicultural
but fifty years of ‘inbreeding’ that is linked historically to the BBC and the Civil-Service, with ‘grace-and-
favor’ appointments. The BBC is NOT a 'corporation' as it pays no Corporation Tax at all. This has to
change.
Another problem is that the BBC is not an institution either. It is a ‘group’ of BBC owned production
companies. There are now eighteen (wholly owned BBC production companies in all), designed to distribute
in a ‘tax efficient’ manner key presenters and BBC production staff paid above £150,000 a year and
above that are now ‘off the record’ (to FOI requests).
This obviates the need to be more transparent as a Corporation, Institution or private limited company
gains extra (non BBC Charter) privileges, private tax savings and salary privacy. The BBC pays less
Corporation tax than all the UK water companies - combined - and as an institution declares itself to be
‘independently’ funded - which of course it is not! It is entirely dependent on a taxpayer subsidy of the TV
license.
As a rough guide the BBC consumes £3.8 Bil ion pounds annual y and delivers less than 1 Bil ion in
‘overseas earnings’ which is again not subject to UK corporation tax. The BBC controls (more than)
eighteen other (UK based) Limited companies that are able to hide the production costs and salaries and
pension schemes which top £1 million liabilities and are considered financially ‘toxic’ if more widely known.
The TV license is in large part financing the generous management pension scheme.
The only way around this dependency and its lack of purpose is to require a BBC subscription to core
functions. If it is as popular as the BBC claims then it will be able to compete with NetFlix, Sky and BT (a
former public subsidy institution and the Post Office (a former public subsidy institution). So it can work.
The BBC can then pay tax on earning like everyone else does. The BBC should be earning over 20 Billion
Dollars a year in revenue and the fact that it makes a huge 75% loss each year speaks for itself. The BBC
cannot forever go on like this. As a country we need media competition and open markets within the entire
industry. The BBC prohibits such incentive.
The BBC makes an annual loss, it is not a profitable corporation - (or Institution) - and its many ‘private’
limited companies are designed to ensure opacity (of where the money goes and how it is used). Not used
entirely for BBC programming, but hidden BBC staff salaries that are far too obvious on the ‘BBC
corporate’ structure can be defrayed or put into ‘private’ offshore accounts. Are they all REALLY worth it?
This is no way to run a broadcasting company.
I leave you with this extract from THE GUARDIAN (which the BBC often source headline stories ). Dated
24th November 2017. The Guardian.
‘The BBC is to publish detailed information about the complaints it receives from viewers after Ofcom, the
media regulator, demanded that the corporation become more transparent.
Under new rules the BBC will have to reveal the number of complaints it receives every fortnight, identify
the shows that received more than 100 complaints, and explain the editorial issues raised by the
complaints and whether they were upheld.’
But I have no confidence that this will make any difference at all. After all DG Tony Hall did say the the
BBC is a ‘vital’ to the nations as the NHS. The NHS is another grossly badly managed and (for managers
overpaid) industry. Good in parts (at best) for those it serves.
I would like to see the BBC as non-quango, non institionalised and more commercially aware Corporate
body (but that means you have to pay the UK 'Corporation Tax' on UK and overseas earnings. A private
BBC subscription service may actually be popular (just pay your tax please). The future can be different
than negativity.”
Please be advised that the Act gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information
held by public authorities. As your request is not a request for recorded information, and we are
not required to create new information to respond to a request, or give a judgement or opinion
that is not already recorded, we cannot provide the information in your request.
You may find the following link of assistance, which details how to make a valid request under the
Act:
https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/official-information/
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Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545700 or you may wish to visit
their website at
http://www.ico.org.uk/
Yours sincerely
Information Rights
BBC Legal