By Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Over the last few weeks MPs have learned the hard way that there is no point being half hearted when it comes to transparency over expenses. We’ve made big mistakes and the public have rightly been angry. But with independent scrutiny and more openness things are finally starting to improve.
The BBC needs to take note and avoid the same mistakes. Dragging your feet on transparency does not work. Yesterday’s announcements published the expenses claims of just 10 people in an organisation of 23,000. We are still no closer to unpicking the Beeb's £14m taxi bill or £15m domestic flight bill.
So here are a few things I think the BBC should do:
- Learn from the mistakes of parliament and be forthcoming with information the public wants, and has the right, to know. Transparency means showing the expense and salary details of the many not the few.
- Instigate proper independent scrutiny of expenses to assess whether they were justified. If some are not, then they should be paid back.
- Allow the National Audit Office in at any time to judge whether BBC expenditure, including expense claims, offer value for money. Currently the NAO can only go in on the invitation of the BBC - that is not good enough.
- Be more flexible and open when it comes to Freedom of Information. Requests must not compromise journalist sources but the public does have a right to know how much BBC staff spend on taxis and lunches.
