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John Waite, presenter of Face the Facts on Radio 4
John Waite, presenter of Face the Facts on Radio 4. Photograph: BBC
John Waite, presenter of Face the Facts on Radio 4. Photograph: BBC

BBC axes Radio 4 consumer strand Face the Facts

This article is more than 9 years old

Award-winning investigative series is latest victim of corporation’s savings as report warns of further cuts to programming

The award-winning BBC Radio 4 consumer investigations series Face the Facts is to be axed, the latest programme to fall victim to corporation cuts.

The long-running series that investigated social injustice, public policy, fraud and inefficiency is being closed due to, ironically, efficiency savings.

Presented by John Waite, the cousin of Terry Waite, Face the Facts’ investigations have often hit the headlines since it began in the mid-1980s, most recently in July when it found that parents with autistic children were “falling prey to untested approaches” to the disorder. It was shortlisted for an Amnesty International Media award in October.

Other lauded reports include one into delayed inquests. It is currently off air but will return for a final run in early 2015.

A BBC spokesman said: “Given the scale of the savings required and the huge range of investigative and consumer affairs programmes Radio 4 broadcasts, such as The Report, File on 4, You & Yours and one-off docs, we’ve decided that the occasional series Face the Facts will come to an end after its early 2015 run.”

The BBC’s managing director of operations, Anne Bulford, warned that the savings the corporation has had to make since the licence fee was frozen in 2010, and new funding obligations - such as the World Service - taken on are likely to lead to further programming cuts.

The BBC already plans to axe the BBC3 TV channel, taking it online only from next autumn, saving about £50m a year. However, the BBC3 closure plan has yet to be submitted to the BBC Trust for final approval.

In a report on efficiencies that have been made by the BBC, Bulford said: “As the report illustrates, many savings delivered in this charter period come from structural or one-off initiatives that can’t easily be repeated, making it more likely that content and services will be impacted if the real terms value of the licence fee continues to be reduced”.

Bulford’s review said the BBC had saved licence fee payers £1.1bn a year and that it was due to hit £1.5bn of “cumulative net annual savings by the end of this charter period in 2016/17”.

According to the BBC, “since 2011/12, around 30% of the £800m total of Delivering Quality First and strategic initiative savings have been made through scope reductions. This is expected to rise to around 50% of the savings in the final years of the programmes as we find money for strategic reinvestment. This will result in tough choices – the most significant is the proposal to close BBC Three as a linear broadcast service.”

Bulford’s review also says the broadcaster has hit the target laid out in 2010 by former director general Mark Thompson to cut overheads and spend 90% of the licence fee on programmes: “More than 90% of core controllable spend is on content, distribution and their related support costs, leaving just 9% of spend on the professional support needed to run the BBC.”

Other savings the corporation has made include cutting its utility bill by £6m over five years, reducing production costs on shows such as EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City by £6m over eight years, and even buying a “second hand outside broadcast truck in 2013” that has “saved over £500,000 per year in rental costs”.

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