BBC Trust Complaint & Reply

Thank you for your email to the BBC Trust. I am responding as a member of the BBC Trust Unit which supports the Chairman and Trustees. I note your concerns about the BBC's coverage of proposed NHS reforms. I should explain that the role of the Trust is distinct from that of the BBC's management and it has no role in day to day editorial decisions, such as which news items to report or in how much detail. The Trust sets the BBC's Editorial Guidelines, which set out the values and standards all BBC content should meet. However, decisions on editorial content, within these guidelines, rest ultimately with the BBC's Director-General as Editor-in-Chief. There is a BBC complaints process in place to deal with instances where audiences feel that the BBC has not met expected standards. This requires that complaints must be dealt with in the first instance by the BBC's management; the Trust's role in this process is to consider appeals from complainants should they be dissatisfied with the responses that they have received from the BBC's management. You can read details of this process online at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints I have therefore passed your email to BBC Audience Services so that they can provide you with a response on behalf of the BBC's management. I hope this will be helpful. Yours sincerely John Hamer BBC Trust Unit -----Original Message----- From: Patricia Farrington [mailto:xraypat@hotmail.com] Sent: 28 April 2013 13:47 To: Trust Enquiries Subject: NHS Dear Sir/ Madam, I am dreadfully disappointed that the BBC did not report the cataclysmic vote in the House of Lords last week, which paves the way for the final destruction of the amazing NHS. The BBC is funded by licence fees paid by taxpayers and, although I realise you must appeal to a disparate audience and have viewing figures to consider, the blackout of news on this historic occasion mystifies and appalls me....and I assure you I am not alone. It seems obvious that the Corporation is governed by an ex Tory Minister and conforms to Tory propaganda: and this in an organisation which purports to have no political bias. We are not deceived; your bias is unnacceptable. On the day of the vote in the HoL a man being treated for bowel cancer was so angry and frustrated that there had been no news reports of this momentous occasion, he pushed a toy pig from Kings Hospital to Downing Street WITH HIS NOSE for four miles, in order to highlight the lack of reporting and the perception of so many politicians with their noses in the trough. You must have known this was happening....all News Channels were alerted but the break up of some insignificant, juvenile, boy band was reported as the momentous news on that day! Great priorities... I really do not think? Who do you think we are out here? The Great Unwashed who are too stupid to understand the insidious sell-off to profiteers of the most important service we have in the UK? I am disgusted. Yours sincerely, Patricia M Farrington MBE Isle of Islay, Argyll.