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might be scope for savings. This would be followed up in the context of the detailed review of the Arabic Service to be held on 20 March (estimated annual
savings of some £110,000 from a reduction in output of 1 hour a day to 56 hours a week).
Mr Tusa welcomed the Committee's proposals for new and increased services, but he wondered if the proposed areas in which savings were to be found should be regarded as a "hair shirt". Did increases necessarily have to be matched by decreases? He referred to the External Services' offer in May 1986 to finance all the proposed increases from savings that had been identified following various internal reviews and windfall savings eg Pension Fund and Corporation Tax refunds. He asked whether the Prescription Committee's proposals reflected a ceiling either on total output or on funding? Mr Barrington said the next three-year funding arrangements were currently under discussion. There was no denying that the External Services had done relatively well in recent years and they should not expect any increase in funding beyond the minimum necessary to maintain output at the present agreed level. He acknowledged that the cost of output varied between individual services and that economies could be made in individual services without necessarily reducing output, for example by reorganising the staffing within a service or increasing the proportion of repeat material, but present output levels should not be regarded as fixed baselines and a degree of flexibility was important. He also pointed out that all Government Departments were required to make efficiency savings. The FCO had also been required to find savings as a result of cash limit settlements which did not fully reflect real increases in costs. The BBC had no automatic right to redeploy any savings within existing operations. These should be used to reduce the bids in PES to take account of 7 per cent pay rises forecast etc. The principle that increases in hours broadcast should be met by cuts in other areas reflected Government policy at this time of tight resources. If it was suggested that all increased output could be met by savings, the question arose as to why these savings had not been made in any case.
5. Mr Udell said he was surprised at the FCO's suggestion that savings might be found in the Russian Service. There was no guarantee that cessation of jamming would continue indefinitely, but it had given the BBC a great opportunity and considerable advantage over other western broadcasters to reach the audience. The limited audience feedback it had so far been possible to receive suggested there was a case for increasing the resources devoted to the Russian Service rather than decreasing them. VOA, who had recently asked when the BBC would increase their output, clearly expected this. A particularly interesting development had been the increased willingness of people in the Soviet Union to be interviewed on the telephone giving Soviet citizens an opportunity to hear views and questioning not available on the domestic media. He suggested that a decrease in output would send the wrong signal to the audience in the
The
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