BBC
Charter and Agreement

The BBC is a state owned public broadcasting company and operates under a royal charter. The charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC, and sets out the BBC's Object, Mission and Public Purposes. It emphasises public service, (limited) editorial independence, prohibits advertising on domestic services and proclaims the BBC is to "seek to avoid adverse impacts on competition which are not necessary for the effective fulfilment of the Mission and the promotion of the Public Purposes".

The charter also sets out that the BBC is subject to an additional 'Agreement' between it and the Culture Secretary, and that its operating licence is to be set by Ofcom, an external regulatory body. It used to be that the Home Secretary be departmental to both Agreement as well as Licence, and regulatory duties fall to the BBC Trust, but the 2017 charter changed those 2007 arrangements.

The charter, too, outlines the Corporation's governance and regulatory arrangements as a statutory corporation, including the role and composition of the BBC Board. The current Charter began on 1 January 2017 and ends on 31 December 2027; the Agreement being coterminous.
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