Giving a decentralised BBC Scotland full control of licence fee revenue could boost the country’s economy by £60m a year, according to the Scottish government.

In a policy paper on charter renewal, published on Wednesday, Scotland’s culture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said that Holyrood is seeking “a transformation of the BBC’s governance structure to reflect the higher levels of devolution across the UK, and in particular to Scotland, following the Smith Commission”.

It also outlines a range of measures separate from the charter renewal process, calling for Scottish journalists to be given a “greater voice” across the network, more support for Scottish independent producers to take their content to the global market and for BBC Alba to receive the same levels of in-house programming as the Welsh language channel S4C.

Hyslop said: “Decentralising control to BBC Scotland will mean commissioning, editorial and budget decisions will more accurately reflect Scottish issues and interests. It could also deliver a significant economic boost to Scotland.

“With full control of the money raised in Scotland through the licence fee, BBC Scotland could deliver up to an additional £100m of investment in Scotland’s creative sector over the course of just one year, supporting an extra 1,500 jobs and contributing up to an additional £60m to Scotland’s economy. Over the period of the next charter, this would see as much as £1bn invested directly in Scotland’s creative economy and around £600m of additional economic benefit.”

The paper proposes a unitary board structure for Scotland, which would send members to a UK board, be held accountable by the Scottish parliament, and have full responsibility for running the BBC within Scotland.

It also suggests that programmes produced by each nation within the newly devolved BBC could be bought in an internal market by other nations and regions to supplement their own schedules.

The policy paper, the result of more than six months of consultation, argues that “a greater voice for Scottish journalists on Scottish issues in the UK network as well as on national and international stories for the Scottish network cannot now be resisted”, and could be in part addressed by the provision of a “Scottish Six” flagship news programme.

The BBC director general, Tony Hall, assured Holyrood’s education and culture committee last month that the BBC was already reviewing its news services for Scotland, including the potential for a “Scottish Six”, after he admitted the BBC had been too slow to match the shift in political power from Westminster to Holyrood.

But Hall also resisted calls from SNP members of the committee to a new federal structure and a guarantee that all £323m raised from Scottish licence fee payers should be kept in Scotland, arguing that the BBC needs to remain a fully integrated body, which shares resources and talent.

The paper on charter renewal refers to consultation work undertaken by the Scottish government that suggests the main reason for lower levels of audience satisfaction in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK is because audiences do not feel that the output of the BBC in Scotland fully represents their views and interests.



The corporation came under intense fire from yes campaigners during the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 for its alleged bias. There was an angry mass demonstration outside BBC Scotland’s Glasgow headquarters after Alex Salmond clashed with the then BBC political editor Nick Robinson.