Q81 Mr Bacon: Is it correct that the plan includes moving BBC Sport to Manchester?
Mr Thompson: Yes.
Q82 Mr Bacon: It does. Could you just remind the Committee where the Olympics are taking place?
Mr Thompson: They are taking place in 2008 in Beijing.
Q83 Mr Bacon: Right. After that?
Mr Thompson: We are not proposing to move our sports department to Beijing. In 2012 they are taking place in London.
Q84 Mr Bacon: I appreciate that when you were covering the Olympics in Sydney or Los Angeles or Calgary or wherever the Olympics have been you did not move the whole BBC sports department there. However, it is odd, is it not, in the same breath to be talking about moving BBC Sport within the UK to Manchester at a time when the Olympics are going to be in London?
Mr Thompson: The Olympics will hopefully be a wonderful event; the BBC will be covering the Olympics. They will last in the end for a few weeks in the summer of 2012. We believe that it is important that the BBC invests and draws on talent and is based across the United Kingdom in the nations, but also in the various parts of England beyond London, the South East and the M25. We believe that to achieve that, and in particular to create a powerful and effective broadcasting centre in Manchester, it is important that real broadcasting takes place and that major BBC operations take place there. That is why not just Sport but BBC Children will be joining our network programme makers in Manchester, if the plan goes ahead.
Q85 Mr Bacon: Mr Peat, this is a question for you, referring to what the Chairman was saying earlier about Parliament. What is the objection to Sir John Bourn, as Comptroller and Auditor General, auditing the BBC accounts in the way that he does for other public money? Is it to do with editorial independence, because that has been flagged up in the past? Is that the objection, or if not, what?
Mr Thompson: The first point to make is that the BBC is different from government departments and therefore one has to think afresh of the appropriate relationship. One of the key objectives is that the BBC has to be seen as remaining utterly and totally politically independent.
Q86 Mr Bacon: So it is to do with political independence. The National Audit Office is, of course, not part of Government; it is completely independent of Government too.
Mr Peat: We are aware of that and we very much welcome the statements from the Chairman of this Committee and from the Comptroller and Auditor General that they would shy off from any investigation or any element of investigation which came close to editorial issues. What I should say is that as Chairman of the Audit Committee I should be very happy to discuss any proposal for areas which the NAO would wish to study, but I should wish to retain the right to consider whether there was any risk of intervention or perception of intervention with editorial issues; that is important, given the BBC's position that that be retained.
Q87 Mr Bacon: Would you agree that of all the parts of the BBC which contribute to its worldwide reputation, probably the BBC World Service is at the pinnacle?
Mr Peat: Indeed.
Q88 Mr Bacon: So its editorial independence is second to none. Would you agree with that?
Mr Peat: I agree entirely.
Q89 Mr Bacon: Do you accept that the National Audit Office has audited the World Service for many years?
Mr Peat: I am aware of that, but of course the World Service is differently financed and there has always been a closer relationship between Government and the World Service.
Q90 Mr Bacon: It is differently financed, in fact the connection between the financing of the World Service and Government is still closer with Government than it is for you, for the rest of the BBC, and yet there is still no suggestion that because Sir John audits those accounts there is a problem, is there?
Mr Peat: I am not aware of any suggestion and I am not aware of any suggestion of problems in any of the relationships with NAO.