Q737 Paul Farrelly: I just have one last question on governance, Chair, but before I do that. At the moment you are going through a public value testing process with respect to the decision on BBC Three.
David Liddiment: We will be doing, yes.
Paul Farrelly: You will be doing?
David Liddiment: It has not started.
Paul Farrelly: I thought Tony had announced that in March.
David Liddiment: No, he announced his intention subject to Trust approval, his proposal to remove BBC Three as a normal channel and put it online. That has to go through a public value test and we said, “Right, we await the detailed proposals”. He made the announcement in March because it was known to only a tiny number of people at the BBC, and my understanding is that the proposal is imminent.
Q738 Paul Farrelly: He made the announcement in March but nothing has happened since?
David Liddiment: What has happened since is that he has people working on the detail of the proposal.
Q739 Paul Farrelly: He has made the announcement without having the detail?
David Liddiment: He said, “My intention is to do this”. In other words, “I am persuaded by the strategic, financial and every other argument that this is in the best interests of the BBC. I recognise that in order to make this happen I need to get approval from the governing body of the BBC, the BBC Trust. In order that they can make a decision, they need great detail because they need to understand exactly how this is going to work. They need to understand in great detail the impact it may or may not have on the market, because we need to be able to the public value test. So until we get the detail we cannot do the public value test”. I do not think that is a—
Q740 Paul Farrelly: You are a very respected television executive in the independent sector as well, and one of the complaints that we have, be it on BBC Three, bet it on BBC One + 1, be it on BBC Production where BBC Production is potentially going to compete in the outside market, and other announcements that the BBC makes, is that they instil a great deal of uncertainty in the outside world, and that uncertainty is certainly not dispelled by months and months and months of waiting for detail.
David Liddiment: But we will publish what the BBC send to us, the detailed proposal. We will publish that. We will then do our work, and the work allows everybody to come in and say, “What about this? What about that?” It is an entirely open process, so those people who have concerns about BBC Three and think it is the wrong thing to do will have the opportunity to make their arguments through that process. I do not think anyone has anything to fear from that. No one is going to do a backdoor deal around BBC Three.
Q741 Paul Farrelly: It is so open but your answer that nothing has happened is news to me.
Jon Zeff: The formal public value test has not started because, as David said, the Trust is awaiting the very detailed proposal that we need in order to run the kind of detailed scrutiny, for Ofcom to do the market impact assessment, and for us to run with the consultation that we need to. I do not think that is the same at all as saying, “Nothing has happened”.