Opening the BBC's books

In the week that Michael Martin is forced to quit or suffer death by a thousand cuts, the BBC Trust reveals that the corporation will publish its executive board’s expenses.

While the BBC stresses that the measure has been underway for some time and is in no way related to the shenanigans at Westminster, it couldn’t be timelier. With public outrage at an all-time high, greater openness within a public body has to be welcomed.

Not that the exec board aren’t to be trusted. One doubts, for example, that Mark Thompson would ever need a moat dredging, but the message is clear: individuals are accountable.

And yet, as employees of a public body, shouldn’t everyone’s expenses be in the public domain? Alan Yentob’s expense claims have certainly sparked calls for that in the past. The danger is creating regulation that could hamper programme-making, as occurred after the trust-in-TV issues. Partly driven by those who failed to understand the fundamentals of TV production, we now have what many say is an overly stringent compliance system in which creative people feel strangled by red tape. When it comes to expenses, we don’t need to know about every last Kit Kat consumed on set, and we don’t need to see every menu from an exec/talent dinner. That would be an easy stick with which to beat an already bruised BBC.

But the corporation must be more open about its spending. It cannot afford to be seen as a ‘gentlemen’s club’ operating behind closed doors. As Parliament has shown, that would spell disaster.