It has been said that staff are being asked to exploit commercial opportunities at the expense of focussing on the programmes themselves. Questions are being raised about whether profit is being put before programme integrity. Surely, the critics say, that's not what the BBC and its staff are there to do? The answer to this is of course an emphatic no.

The BBC exists, as it always has, to make programmes that audiences love - "to inform, educate, entertain and make a profit" is certainly not the new mantra for all our programme makers.

But it has long been the case in UK public service programme making that we have benefited from revenue generated by the commercial sale of CDs, DVDs, books and other activity linked to programmes which have helped to supplement programme budgets.

The History Of The World in 100 Objects books and CBeebies Live events are just two examples of activity that have delivered profits to the BBC that have in turn gone back into programme budgets. These are the kinds of ideas we look for - ideas that complement not compromise or change the shape of our programmes.

BBC News, whether it's domestic TV, radio or online, is of course funded by the Licence Fee and is not subject to any commercial pressures. It's a different story with BBC World News, the live TV news channel broadcast outside the UK, which is a commercial operation funded through advertising and distribution deals. And it is in this commercial area that we can always use as many good ideas as possible to help generate additional income that can be invested back into the network.

It is also worth saying that any ideas we do come up with have to undergo the intense scrutiny of our editorial guidelines and the sharp eye of the BBC Trust whose role in part is to ensure that the BBC is not compromising its position in any way. Editorial integrity remains, as it always has, the unassailable core of what we do and we undermine that at our peril.

I am also happy to reassure NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet that we would never consider introducing profit targets for programme makers across the BBC. So yes we will always seek to find appropriate ways in which we can raise commercial revenue that will support licence fee funding for our programmes but never at the expense of the core programme values. And so I am afraid we are unlikely to be seeing a range of Paxman dolls anytime soon.

Caroline Thomson is Chief Operating Officer

Yesterday I was in Glasgow giving a progress report to BBC staff about Delivering Quality First (DQF) - our initiative to reshape the BBC for the future. The BBC's mission remains the same - to inform, educate and entertain through programmes and services of high quality, originality and value. We are delivering that mission; 97% of the British public tune in to the BBC every week. That is an incredible privilege that brings with it great responsibility.

Our challenge is how to continue to fulfill our mission between now and 2016 whilst making 20 per cent savings. This is about finding better ways of working which will prepare us for a connected future. Linked to this we need to ensure that the BBC is creating programmes about the whole of Britain - serving our audiences throughout the UK.

Local and national broadcasting is at the heart of what we do. And as we move towards 2016 more of what we do will be done outside of London. Salford is just about to open for business - we are 6 weeks away. Sport, Radio 5 live, Children's are all coming together in one location. This is the model for the BBC of the future, and where many of the ideas from DQF will be piloted.

Pacific Quay is one of the most modern, state of the art, digital broadcasting facilities in the world and has helped BBC Scotland to already achieve a 30 per cent efficiency saving. We will be putting forward the really big decisions to the BBC Trust in July. They will then conduct a public consultation before any final decisions are made.

However in the meantime as we have talked with BBC staff there are some really useful ideas that they have come up to make us a more effective organisation, and which we can address right now. Some of the concerns that staff have raised include a frustration with outdated broadcasting equipment which can become a barrier to their ability to do their job well. There is also a feeling that there are too many layers of management and there is too much complexity in decision making.

We've listened to these concerns and are taking action to create a more effective and simpler BBC with clearer accountability:

• To tackle the complexity that so often frustrates people working in and around the BBC and create simpler decision making - we will move to a maximum of 7 organisation layers. That means a maximum of seven layers including the DG and the most junior staff.
• We will establish a technology fund to respond to staff concerns. We have already found an extra £1M specifically for technology upgrades in English Regions TV, and for BBC Radio Northampton which faced a particular problem.
• Thirdly we are currently spread over 400 different properties. We want as much investment in future to be in programmes rather than buildings and so we are aiming to reduce the property space we occupy by 30 per cent by 2015.
• Finally - there has been some speculation that we are considering reducing the redundancy terms for BBC staff. There are no immediate plans to change redundancy terms. Clearly we cannot rule it out, but today I have given a pledge that if we do decide to change them in the future, we will give staff eighteen months notice.

These common sense decisions are about getting the basics right before we embark on the bigger transformation ahead.

Caroline Thomson is the BBC's Chief Operating Officer

• Read Caroline Thomson's previous post about Delivering Quality First and a summary of the inititiative so far on the About the BBC web site.

I understand that some of these stories may sound drastic so I want to explain the process and where we’ve got to so far.

The Director General has challenged the senior managers overseeing this work to think radically about what the BBC should look like in six years time, what our priorities should be and what we should do less of. And they’ve done that. But at this stage, the outcomes of these discussions are still just ideas.

I can assure you no decisions have been made yet and none of the ideas currently being explored will definitely happen. Equally, I can’t rule anything out and we are still welcoming further suggestions.

We won't be giving a running commentary on every speculative idea - but I want to be clear that our commitment to quality content as well as value for money is running right through this process.

On the subject of local radio, it’s important to remember that representing the UK’s regions and communities is one of the BBC’s six public purposes. With the rest of the local news sector at increasing risk of market failure, the BBC’s contribution to local journalism is more important now than ever. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking at the most effective way of delivering it.

As part of last year’s strategy review, we looked hard at our local services, making our networks more distinctive, increasing the amount of news and speech programming and investing in local journalism. Reach for our local services has risen recently and the question now is, how can we take this further within a flat licence fee settlement?

And regarding sports rights, we need to remember that delivering great sporting moments to the audience unites the nation. This weekend, viewing of the Six Nation’s Calcutta Cup game between England and Scotland peaked at 8 million viewers and the BBC Sport website received 3.9 million visitors on the day of the England v France game.

Looking ahead, the plan is to bring the proposals from all the staff consultations together and test them against out public purposes and priorities. These will then be shared with staff before the final proposals are submitted to the BBC Trust for its approval in July. The BBC Trust will consult the public before any final decisions are made.

I can’t pretend there aren’t difficult choices and some painful decisions to be made but I’m hopeful that by thinking radically and being transparent about the process the decisions we make will be in the best interests of the BBC and our audiences.

Caroline Thomson is the BBC's Chief Operating Officer

When we pay our licence fee, or see the direct debit on our bank statement the first thing we often think about is what we get in return. I hope you would agree with me that the breadth and depth of quality programmes and services the BBC provides are good value for money at less than 40p per day. 

We’re also publishing more detail on Senior Manager pay than ever before, with information about the salary levels of the remaining 462 permanent Licence Fee-funded Senior Managers at the BBC. We know that Licence Fee payers want more information about how we spend their money, and this disclosure demonstrates that the BBC is continuing to lead the way in being open and transparent.

Finally, a quick update on our progress in reducing the number of Senior Managers and the amount we pay them at the BBC. Up to the end of December, we had cut the Senior Manager paybill by 13.6% and the number of senior managers by 8.5% from their August 2009 levels. By the end of the year we will make further reductions in order to deliver a 25% reduction in the pay bill and 20% reduction in headcount.

You can read more about our approach to reducing executives and talent pay here.

Caroline Thomson is the BBC's Chief Operating Officer

Our partners are Bristol City Council, the South West Regional Development Agency; South West Screen; the city’s two universities – University of Bristol and the University of the West of England and the city’s creative industries sector, represented by Watershed and Bristol Media amongst others and a number of community organisations including Knowle West Media Centre.

The partnership is one embodiment of the BBC’s commitment to the West of England. Home to factual programming and its jewel, the Natural History Unit as well as local and regional programming, Bristol’s principal agencies have a strong commitment to developing a digital creative industry and already has a strong reputation for cutting edge technology and we believe its important to play our part in helping the industry to flourish.

Anchor was set up to bring together the wealth of talent across the West to unlock creative talent and by working together to help stimulate and grow the creative economy.
We want to develop cutting edge technology and innovation for broadcasting over the next 50 years, based on a tradition of excellence over the last fifty years.

We signed the agreement a year ago this month and you can see the full memorandum of understanding on the partnership website.  

This partnership is one important element of the BBC's commitment to partnership working. You can find out more about this from our partnerships website.

A lot of work has gone into the last year from a range of people involved in the partnership. When I look at what all those involved have achieved, its clear tremendous progress has been made. There have been working groups on skills; on Innovation and on film and TV production and multiplatform. BBC Films has invested in South West Screen’s iFeatures project, alongside others. 

Programmes are our lifeblood and in addition to factual, natural history and local radio and regional TV programmes we also have great network radio in bristol.

Last year BBC Bristol radio department celebrated 30 years of Poetry Please  at the Old Vic and this year the department are joining with the Festival of Ideas and the Arnolfini to present Matthew Parris and special guests for two editions of Radio 4's biography programme Great Lives. You can apply here for tickets.

And, alongside the proud history of Casualty shooting in Bristol  we've continued with location filming for shows such as 5 Daughters, Lark Rise to Candleford and we're currently filming a new drama - Dirk Gently.

We’ve held workshops and discussions with the creative community in the West and there have been both formal and informal conversations taking place sharing knowledge and skills over the last 12 months.

As part of the partnership we’ve also looked at how the BBC can increase its interaction with the community. Around 10% of our staff are now involved in giving some of their time to initiatives around media literacy in the community and we’re on track to double this by 20% by Christmas. We’ve provided BBC workshops and professional training opportunities to community groups and we have offered paid placements to young people as part of our Face to Face scheme which has involved 15 young people from community groups across the city .

We want to encourage young people to believe that the BBC is and can be a place for them to work and learn about programme making and to enrich our workforce with a diverse range of backgrounds and ethnicity. Against industry trends we have improved the diversity of recruits at BBC Bristol, but we can and must do more.

I hope this work serves to demonstrate the BBC's commitment to Bristol and the West. We've been here for half a century and we are very much here to stay!

Just talking has helped us all achieve a better understanding of our respective organisations and goals. We’re all now facing some tough choices, but by working together we can ensure that we maximise our opportunities to grow and sustain the creative industries in the West. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve over the next 12 months.

Caroline Thomson is Chief Operating Officer

Read Head of Outreach, Alec MicGivan's blog about celebrating partnerships in Bristol.

The ongoing election coverage and the extraordinary impact of the Prime Ministerial debates, has demonstrated the power of television, wherever it comes from and reminds us that the BBC is not the only broadcaster that can provide coverage of great national moments. But three things make our approach different. First, we will always bring you the big national events which form part of our heritage without needing to consider whether they are commercially attractive. From the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph to the State Opening of Parliament, our motivation is simple: we exist to bring people those events that resonate across the whole country.

Second, the BBC brings new audiences to these great national events. For example, the Olympics. Your first memory may depend on your age - was it Linford Christie's glory in 1992, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett's battle in 1980 or Dick Fosbury's unique jumping style in 1968? Whatever the memory, it was the BBC that brought these moments to you. We are always looking to find ways of opening up these events to new audiences. The enthusiasm and tradition of the Last Night of the Proms brings young and old together- 4.5m of you last year - in a celebration of music that has become a highlight of our cultural calendar. To help ensure this tradition endures, this year BBC Three will be showing its first Prom, a Doctor Who special, which will provide an introduction into the world of the Proms for many of its audience.

Finally, the BBC provides for audiences for whom these events can be a springboard to curiosity and new knowledge. This summer BBC Four will be exploring the history and culture of South Africa, which will attract new audiences initially interested because of the passion and drama of the action on the football field. This reflects our core mission of informing, educating and entertaining.

Our latest announcements promise more such wonderful moments this summer. It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the Proms, and this year's line-up looks set to be the best yet, with numerous highlights on Radio Three and BBC Two and Four over the two month programme. For me, Paul Lewis playing Beethoven's Piano Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra will be a particular highlight. Meanwhile, I hope our coverage of Africa's first-ever World Cup will produce lifetime memories - and not just for the England fans following the competition.

These are the iconic events that the BBC exists to cover and excels at covering. Bringing our audiences the World Cup, the Proms, and the other landmark events that really resonate with everyone, is one of the five editorial priorities that we have set for the BBC. These are events that attract huge viewing figures - more than 16m people watched some of the Proms last year, while four-fifths of the population watched some of the last World Cup. But even more important than the size of the audience is the value they place on such events. Research shows 84% of people see sport as a vital way of bringing society together, while 82% feel entitled to watch key national events free-to-air because they have paid the Licence Fee.

While we're talking about value, all too often the BBC is accused of profligacy in a simplistic debate around staffing numbers for these great events. Yes, we must deliver value for money, and we have planned carefully to ensure spend on major events this summer is kept as lean and efficient as possible to guarantee our coverage does achieve great value.

But at the same time, this determination must never be at the expense of the quality experience Licence Fee payers demand and expect. It would be a complete false economy to cover these events half-heartedly. The viewer does not expect one of the world's greatest sporting occasions presented from some windowless room in the basement of Television Centre. They want iconic moments brought through knowledgeable top quality broadcasting. These are their events and the BBC has duty to them to deliver the goods. We are not going to short-change the audience.

As part of this, we decided to provide information about the people who run the BBC, those who ensure that we meet our mission to serve the British public. So we decided to publish the names of the people in charge and the jobs they do, how much they get paid, what hospitality they receive, and what expenses they claim. And we committed to doing this on a regular basis. We have also, for the first time, provided a breakdown of our spend on on-screen and on-air performers.

With these steps, we have aimed to put the BBC at the forefront of transparency and public accountability. We have gone further than many other public bodies and we will continue to look for new ways to make ourselves more open to licence fee payers. And all this is in addition to the hundreds of requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we respond to from journalists, politicians and members of the public.

Clearly, suddenly making information public that we've previously kept private has been a big change for many of us to get used to. Many people, no matter where they work, quite understandably expect that their salary should remain confidential between them and their employer. However, we decided that for senior managers at the BBC, those responsible for spending large amounts of public money, it is appropriate for the public to know how much they are paid. The public interest is greater than the personal discomfort.

In moving through this discomfort to a world where we are regularly publishing such a range of personal information about so many people, there is inevitably a vigorous internal debate in which sometimes unfortunate things are said. Yesterday, following a FOIA request from a journalist, we released a number of emails between BBC managers who were preparing for the disclosure of executive salaries in January. In one of them, one manager suggested changing the way the information was presented, to disguise the number of employees paid over £100,000.

This suggestion was dismissed by the BBC's Directors and the information was subsequently published in full in the already established bands as ruled upon by the Information Commissioner's Office. And we dismissed it because it is absolutely at odds with and counter to our complete belief that we need to change and become more open.

Although the contents of that email are embarrassing, I believe the incident actually underscores the BBC's commitment to transparency: a bad idea to disguise information from the public was rejected by the BBC's Directors; and the emails relating to the disclosure were released, unredacted, to a journalist who asked for them.

We will continue to push ourselves to ensure we remain at the vanguard of transparency and to demonstrate that we are securing value for money for licence fee payers.

The study, carried out by Deloitte and published in the coming weeks, will show that the BBC (including its commercial subsidiaries) contributed at least £7.6bn to the UK economy in 2008/09, supporting jobs and generating at least two pounds of economic value for every pound of the licence fee, on top of providing the great quality content that we all enjoy.

The BBC's raison d'être is providing programmes and content of real value and quality to licence fee payers, and we must never forget this. But in delivering this broader benefits stretch into the digital and creative industries - which in turn spills over into the wider economy.

The report will also show funding through the licence fee is a vital source of stability across the whole UK broadcasting industry as the economy slows.

Key private sector beneficiaries of the BBC's investment include independent production companies who produce around 40 per cent of BBC TV programmes around the UK including Spooks, Waterloo Road, Who Do You Think You Are? and Question Time.

In our forthcoming Strategy Review we will also explore the potential for spending an even higher proportion of the licence fee on quality content, providing a further shot in the arm for our creative industries.

This new evidence shows the licence fee is a force for good. It provides us with more than just quality programmes - it also boosts UK PLC supporting thousands of jobs and businesses, many of which are in the private sector.

This evidence will ensure that as we focus on creating quality programming we can also think about how best to spread the knock-on economic benefits to local and regional economies, including through our Strategy Review.

The Report will also reveal:
• BBC TV, Radio and Online services each contribute at least £4.5bn, £1bn and £300m respectively to the UK economy each year.
• BBC Worldwide and our other commercial operations contribute £866m to the UK economy as well as directly returning profits back to licence fee payers.
• The BBC's activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland contributes £330m, £248m and £131m respectively to the UK economy.
• The BBC's role in promoting digital markets such as Freeview and digital switchover has helped the process to be completed far earlier than it would have been without the BBC. This contribution has led to an extra £95m (up to £250m in some scenarios) created for the UK economy in 2008/09 alone.
• The BBC also plays a critical role in providing training for the media industry. Deloitte estimates that BBC training leads to a benefit of £59m each year of improved productivity to the creative economy.
• BBC activity directly and indirectly supports around 7,000 jobs in Glasgow, Cardiff and Bristol, which creates £200m of economic value that would be lost if the BBC was not licence fee funded
• The BBC's spend on the independent production sector, one of the crown jewels of the UK creative economy, directly generates £867m of economic value. Deloitte estimates that including wider benefits this value could be up to £1.4bn.

Our Strategy Review will bring a laser focus on how to guarantee that quality continues. We will work to ensure that excellent content and benefitting the economy go hand in hand.

However, we also need to go further, be more efficient and secure still better value for money. We are driving down spend on both senior manager pay and talent as the market changes. Whilst we operate in a competitive market and the public tell they do expect top artists on the BBC, we are already getting the best for less.

In a tough economic climate, we need to be more conscious of our market 'footprint'. Our Strategy Review will consider issues of the BBC's size and scope carefully. It will define the boundaries. At the same time, it is important to nail the myth the BBC only has a negative market impact - in fact, it is very often an important force for good in the economy.

So today we are taking a significant step forward in opening up the BBC. In publishing the precise salaries and full business-related expenses for more than one hundred senior managers at the BBC we are going way beyond the disclosure of executive board level directors that many comparable organisations reveal. We are doing this because we believe it is the right thing to do, and there should be transparency around how we reward the most senior members of staff. These individuals have been identified according to their salary, their responsibilities and influence for spending public money and for overseeing the BBC's services and operations. The publication includes a number of the individuals whose salaries and expenses were published earlier in the year.

We are also going further in providing complete transparency over business-related expenses. Most organisations account for expenses in two ways - out-of-pocket business expenses, and centrally booked costs. Where the BBC is different is that we are publishing both, which are listed today in two categories - e-expenses and central bookings. Central bookings relate to services that have been booked using the BBC's centralised system such as taxis, flights and hotels. E-expenses are costs that are incurred by individuals such as hospitality and business meals or travel when they cannot access the central bookings system.

We are also building on our disclosure policy earlier in the year where we kept redactions to a minimum. In total just under 3,000 lines of information have been published today and the BBC has made redactions to only 1% of the records to protect confidentiality.

Of course there has been much debate in the media about the level of senior managers' pay at the BBC. The figures published today represent senior management salaries and expenses for April to June 2009. In the context of today's announcement it is important to remember that we recently announced that we will be reducing the total pay bill for senior managers by 25% over the next three years and will be reducing the number of senior managers by 18% over the same period. Alongside a new remuneration policy for senior managers we published a report that found we are paying between 25% and 65% less for our senior managers than comparable organisations.

Inevitably in a painful recession any spend is likely to attract comment. However, in reviewing today's material I am of the view that when you hold up both the salaries of our senior managers and their expenses to other comparable organisations in our industry we have a record which stands up to scrutiny. It is also important to recognise that many of the meetings where expenses are incurred result in deals being secured that generate millions of pounds in terms of co-production money and programme sales which the BBC can then reinvest in BBC content that I hope the public enjoy and value.

Our decision to disclose salaries and business-related expenses I believe demonstrates a new era of openness at the BBC.

With that in mind, we decided not simply to publish a 3,000-line spreadsheet, but instead to order and present the information in a way that is most useful. The public will be able to find the information that we have announced today on the About the BBC section of the BBC website. Here not only will people find the precise financial details of the executives listed, but it also sets out specific detail on each senior manager in terms of management and decision-making responsibility.

The next publication will be in the first quarter of 2010, when we will publish the expenses for July to September 2009. Alongside this we will publish a precise total amount that the BBC spends on talent alongside the Register of Interests and Gifts & Hospitality.

Ultimately we hope that today's announcement and the process that we started earlier this year will go some way to dispelling the myths that are sometimes propagated about the BBC and how it operates. We recognise that there is still some distance to go, but we are confident that the final destination will be a stronger, deeper relationship with our audience based on trust and their belief that the BBC continues to have an important role to play in their lives. Read more about the announcement.