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BBC to take better care of web budget
Auntie gets its house in order...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Tuesday 22 July 2008

The BBC's independent regulator, the BBC Trust, has approved the corporation's plans to manage its website budget more effectively - but has not approved a request for an additional £39m of new investment over the next year.

This follows the news in May that the BBC had overspent its 2007/8 budget for bbc.co.uk by £24.9m due to a "misallocation of resources".

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A total of £110m was spent on bbc.co.uk in the last 12 months - 48 per cent higher than the service licence baseline budget.

The Trust asked the BBC Executive to propose a new system of financial management to address the shortcomings which led to the overspend.

These proposals were approved by the Trust on 16 July following a recommendation from a BBC Trust sub-committee.

According to the Trust this will ensure "better financial accountability and editorial and managerial oversight of bbc.co.uk to the benefit of licence fee payers".

The measures include a set of rigorous controls for financial performance and the appointment of a group controller for bbc.co.uk who will have overall accountability and responsibility for the service licence.

This management structure will be reviewed within a year of implementation.

There has been no new investment approved by the Trust despite the BBC originally wanting another £39m to invest in bbc.co.uk during 2008/9.

The BBC Executive has said it is reconsidering when it will apply for new investment.