The BBC Licence Fee Unit is responsible for the administration, collection and enforcement of the TV licence fee.
The BBC took over the role of Television Licensing Authority from the Home Office as a result of the Broadcasting Act 1990. It contracts a number of private companies to fulfil this statutory role. These companies operate under the trading name of TV Licensing, but the BBC retains full legal responsibility - the threatening letters, aggressive cold-callers and dishonest press releases are all ultimately the BBC's handiwork.
The Licence Fee Unit, otherwise known as the TV Licensing Management Team, is based at the BBC's White City buildings in west London.
It is led by the Head of Revenue Management, Pipa Doubtfire, who has occupied the role for as long as we can remember. The Head of Revenue Management is directly accountable to the BBC's Deputy Director General, Anne Bulford, who oversees the Corporation's Finance & Business division.
Mr Hillas, a respected TV licence campaigner that uses the WhatDoTheyKnow.com website for placing Freedom of Information requests, asked the BBC to provide an organisational chart for the Licence Fee Unit.
The chart is reproduced at the top of this post. At first glance it appears there are a lot of staff with the word "manager" in their job title. It would be interesting to learn the salaries drawn by members of the BBC Licence Fee Unit - it must add up to millions of pounds.
Members of the BBC Communications department also work on TV licence fee matters, but they are not indicated on the chart above.
We are grateful to Mr Hillas for this additional insight into the BBC's revenue generation machine.
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ReplyDeleteIt's concerning that there don't appear to be any lawyers in this unit, considering that it has overall responsibility for over 150,000 prosecutions a year.
ReplyDeleteThere are lawyers. Panesar, the FOI Advisor, he is a lawyer.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure Admin? There is no record of him with the Law Society, Bar Council or Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, there do not appear to be any lawyers employed by the BBC who are responsible for ensuring that the licence fee is administered and enforced in a legal manner. The only lawyers with that role appear to be three lawyers that are employed by Capita. Given that the BBC are supposed to oversee the process I find this quite disappointing.
I'm not so sure now you've said that. I got the impression somewhere that he is a lawyer - I've read something that's given me that idea - but I can't put my finger on where.
ReplyDeleteIt could be a misleading job title like "legal adviser" that implies that the holder is a lawyer even when they might not be.
ReplyDelete