BBC to take better care of web budget

Auntie gets its house in order...

NEWS

The BBC's independent regulator, the BBC Trust, has approved the corporation's plans to manage its website budget more effectively - but has not approved a request for an additional £39m of new investment over the next year.

This follows the news in May that the BBC had overspent its 2007/8 budget for bbc.co.uk by £24.9m due to a "misallocation of resources".

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A total of £110m was spent on bbc.co.uk in the last 12 months - 48 per cent higher than the service licence baseline budget.

The Trust asked the BBC Executive to propose a new system of financial management to address the shortcomings which led to the overspend.

These proposals were approved by the Trust on 16 July following a recommendation from a BBC Trust sub-committee.

According to the Trust this will ensure "better financial accountability and editorial and managerial oversight of bbc.co.uk to the benefit of licence fee payers".

The measures include a set of rigorous controls for financial performance and the appointment of a group controller for bbc.co.uk who will have overall accountability and responsibility for the service licence.

This management structure will be reviewed within a year of implementation.

There has been no new investment approved by the Trust despite the BBC originally wanting another £39m to invest in bbc.co.uk during 2008/9.

The BBC Executive has said it is reconsidering when it will apply for new investment.

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