BBC Scotland ‘will benefit’ despite job cuts – Patten

THE chairman of the BBC Trust has said Scotland will ultimately benefit from budget cuts that could see as many as 150 staff made redundant.

While admitting there will be job losses, Lord Patten said yesterday that BBC Scotland will get a higher proportion of the licence fee back than at present.

On a visit to the BBC’s headquarters at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, to finalise plans for the UK-wide cuts, which will see £16 million slashed from BBC Scotland’s annual budget, he said: “I hope that we will be able to demonstrate that at the end of this process, though we are having to deal with a smaller budget, that Scotland will be getting a higher proportion of the licence fee than it does at the moment.”

It is thought that this would be achieved by Scotland making more programmes for the BBC network.

He denied reports that the BBC would be lenient on Scotland during the cuts in order to avoid picking a fight with the SNP-led Scottish Government, which favours a new Scottish digital channel funded by the BBC licence fee.

The BBC Trust, chaired by Lord Patten, met in Scotland yesterday to discuss the results of the spending review, Putting Quality First, ordered earlier this year to examine how the deep cuts might be made across the national broadcaster. BBC Scotland faces a roughly 10 per cent cut in staff, the equivalent of 150 staff, with the biggest proportion coming from “background” departments such as human resources, finance and marketing.