BBC Member for Northern Ireland
- Body
- BBC
- Appointing Department
- Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
- Sector
- Culture, Media & Sport
- Location
- The majority of BBC Board meetings will be held in London or via videoconference, although meetings of the Board (including committee meetings) can be held at any of the BBC’s sites across the UK.
- Number of Vacancies
- 1
- Remuneration
- The base fee for all non-executive directors is £33,000 per annum. A committee chair fee of £5,000 is paid on top of the base fee for chairing one of the committees of the Board, reflecting the additional time and responsibility required. The successful candidate will be required to Chair the Northern Ireland Committee and serve on other committees of the Board.
- Time Requirements
- The core time commitment for non-executive directors, including Nations members will be on average up to 2 days per week.
Campaign Timeline
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Competition Launched
11/03/2022
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Closed for Applications
06/06/2022
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Panel Sift
19/07/2022
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Final Interview Date
31/10/2022
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Announcement
TBC
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TBC
Assessment Panel
- Panel Member
- Robert Specterman-Green
- Panel Role
- Panel Chair
- Positions
- Director for Media and Creative Industries, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Departmental Official
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- Panel Member
- Richard Sharp
- Positions
- BBC Chairman Representative of Organisation
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- Panel Member
- John McCord
- Positions
- Director of Culture, Department for Communities, Northern Ireland Executive Departmental Official
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- Panel Member
- Dr Samir Shah CBE
- Positions
- Other Panel Member
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- Panel Member
- Catherine Baxendale
- Positions
- Independent Member
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Vacancy Description
The BBC’s Royal Charter requires the BBC to ensure that it provides output and services that reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions. To help the BBC deliver this duty the Board includes non-executive Board members representing Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Nations members of the BBC Board are appointed by the UK Government with the agreement of the respective devolved Parliament or Assembly.
DCMS is committed to eliminating discrimination and advancing equality of opportunity in its public appointments. We particularly encourage applicants from underrepresented groups, those based outside London and the South-East and applicants who have achieved success through non-traditional educational routes. This ensures that boards of public bodies benefit from a full range of diverse perspectives and are representative of the people they serve.
BBC Member for Northern Ireland
The BBC’s mission is defined by the Charter: to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.
The BBC is required to do this through delivering five public purposes:
1) To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them;
2) To support learning for people of all ages;
3) To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services;
4) To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom; and,
5) To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world.
The BBC is a public corporation, independent in all matters concerning the fulfilment of its mission and the promotion of the public purposes. It is funded primarily by the licence fee and has a subsidiary commercial operation, which supports the delivery of the Corporation’s mission and public purposes.
Each year the BBC is required to publish an Annual Plan, setting out details of its creative remit for the forthcoming year, and an Annual Report and Accounts, reporting back on performance in the previous year. Copies of these can be found here and here.
The BBC’s activities and services
The BBC Board is responsible for the operation of the entirety of the BBC Group, which includes both the public service broadcasting responsibilities as well as its commercial operations, both in the UK and around the world.
The BBC Board is responsible for ensuring the delivery of the BBC’s mission and public purposes. The Member for Northern Ireland is one of 14 members who oversee this work, ensuring that the Corporation delivers its services and activities in the public interest.
The current public service broadcasting services delivered by the BBC are:
- A portfolio of television channels and services across the UK (with variants across the four Nations of the United Kingdom) providing mixed-genre services aiming for universal appeal; plus a dedicated television channel in Scotland;
- Ten UK-wide radio networks, providing speech and music broadcasting across the UK, catering to all audiences;
- Two national radio services in each of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, catering to both English and local language audiences, as well as a network of local radio stations across England and the Channel Islands, providing a unique and local/regional service to listeners;
- A range of digital services including iPlayer, BBC Sounds, and apps for News, Sport and Weather, among other online services;
- Education services, primarily for children, including homework support and campaigns with wider educational benefit; and
- A global network of news and information services delivered through television, radio and online in over 40 languages through the BBC World Service.
In addition to this, the BBC operates a number of commercial subsidiaries, including: the producer and distributor, BBC Studios; and the physical studio operations business, BBC Studioworks. These subsidiaries provide vital services to the BBC Group and an important, secondary, revenue source to support the Corporation’s public service broadcasting activities.
The BBC employs around 20,000 permanent staff and works with hundreds of contractors and freelancers across the industry. It has bases in all four Nations of the United Kingdom, along with bureaux and offices across the globe.
More information on the responsibilities of the Board can be found here.
The BBC Board has established its own Code of Practice which all directors must follow; this document can be found here.
Person Specification
The Member for Northern Ireland will be expected to:
- Support the Mission and Public Purposes of the BBC, which is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences and all sections of the population through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain;
- Be a senior representative and ambassador of the BBC to its various stakeholders, including the United Kingdom Government and Parliament and the devolved national Assembly in Northern Ireland;
- Uphold and protect the independence of the BBC;
- Provide leadership ensuring the BBC is up to the challenge of keeping pace with enormous technological changes, and promoting the BBC’s status as a globally-recognised British institution;
- Support the Chair and the Chief Executive (Director General) to deliver the BBC’s strategic and business plans and effectively discharge its statutory and Charter responsibilities in line with corporate governance best practice; and
- Hold the BBC Executive to account, including with regards to editorial and journalistic practices, to help ensure that the BBC adheres to the highest standards; and
- Provide challenge and scrutiny to ensure that the BBC provides output and services that meet the needs of audiences in Northern Ireland. In this context, the Nation member for Northern Ireland will be required to Chair the Northern Ireland Committee of the BBC Board. The remit of the Committee is to require that the BBC provides output and services that meet the needs of audiences in Northern Ireland and that the BBC fulfils its public purpose in relation to the Nations and Regions of the United Kingdom. It meets at least three times a year.
Essential skills and experience
Prospective candidates for the role need to be able to demonstrate a commitment to the independence, mission and public purposes of the BBC, as well as demonstrating that they meet a majority of the following criteria to a high degree:
- Experience working at a high level of public or commercial life in the UK with experience of senior leadership roles or board roles or equivalent;
- An understanding of the key challenges and opportunities facing the media and (public service) broadcasting market and/or the creative industries in the UK, and globally;
- A proven ability to think through complex issues strategically, independently and imaginatively;
- Excellent communication and relationship management skills, and the ability to represent the BBC to a wide range of stakeholder groups, including audiences, parliamentarians and the media; and,
- Ability to challenge and vigorously scrutinise in the public interest, the operation of the BBC, including delivery of impartiality, upholding journalistic standards, and global reach.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience of financial management and a good understanding of audit, governance, risk management and control.
Member for Northern Ireland
For the Northern Ireland Member role, the successful candidate will have a strong connection, by residence or otherwise, with Northern Ireland.
In addition to the essential skills and experience listed above, applicants for the role of Northern Ireland Board member must be able to demonstrate the following attributes:
- A strong knowledge of the culture, characteristics and affairs of the people, and broadcasting issues, in Northern Ireland; and
- An understanding of views of audiences and public opinion in Northern Ireland.