The Stage

Ex-ITV man Liddiment joins BBC Trust

Published Thursday 12 October 2006 at 12:25 by Liz Thomas

Former ITV director of programmes David Liddiment and Patricia Hodgson, the former chief executive of the Independent Television Commission, are among the eight new appointments the government has announced to join the new BBC Trust, which will replace the board of governors from next year.

Chitra Bharucha, Diane Coyle, Alison Hastings, Rotha Johnston, Janet Lewis-Jones and Mehmuda Mian Pritchard, the independent police complaints commissioner, are also on the trust.

He said: “The new BBC Trust has a very different role from that of the board of governors it replaces. The new charter requires that the trust is independent of BBC management representing the interests of licence fee payers. We must consult the public to ensure our decisions are properly informed by those who pay for the BBC. The trust will recognise that every licence fee payer also has an interest in the wider choice offered across the industry.

“One of our first tasks as trustees will be to consult the public about the priorities we should set BBC management to meet the six public purposes laid out in the new charter. This will include the first of the trust’s regular major audience research surveys, asking the public how the BBC is performing, plus an early meeting of the new audience councils from around the UK. For the first time, the public will help set the strategic agenda for its BBC.”

The new trustees will join Michael Grade, Dermot Gleeson, Jeremy Peat and Richard Tait to complete the 12-member BBC Trust.