Burnham: Trust chair could be vetted

Andy Burnham

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Lord Currie's replacement as chairman of Ofcom will face vetting by MPs – and media secretary Andy Burnham has told MPs the next chairman of the BBC Trust could face the same.

Currie steps down next year and the government will invite applications for his job in September. Whoever is chosen will have to face questioning from a joint session of the select committees monitoring the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Labour MP Alan Williams, chairman of the Liasion Committee, which represents all the select committees in the House of Commons, has written to Commons' Leader Harriet Harman suggesting the BBC Trust chairman should in future face the same scrutiny as the Ofcom chairman.

Burnham told the select committee on media, culture and sport yesterday (17 July) that he remained opposed to the BBC Trust chairman facing pre-confirmation vetting. But under questioning from chairman John Whittingdale, he said: "I don't have a closed mind. If the committee has a strong view, having gone through the Ofcom process, that we should develop in this way, I am prepared to hear arguments."

The government has been opposed to extending the new scrutiny arrangements to the chairmanship of the BBC Trust on the grounds that it would threaten the BBC's editorial independence.

Whittingdale told Broadcast that he intended to continue pressing the government on the issue, and said the chairman of the Trust was appointed to represent the licence fee payer, not manage the BBC.