Concerns over review into governance of S4C
CONCERNS are being expressed over the time it is taking to launch a review into S4C’s funding and governance.
It is now more than a year since the UK Government said it intended to undertake such a review, but no announcement has been made about who will be leading it and there is speculation that a number of prominent people, including Ffion Hague, wife of former Conservative leader William Hague, have rejected the opportunity to do so.
S4C is facing a period of financial uncertainty after facing “cuts after cuts”, the Welsh language television channel’s chief executive warned a parliamentary committee last month.
Ian Jones told the Welsh Affairs Committee that reductions to the channel’s funding could not “go on”.
The UK Government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport announced a 25% reduction to S4C’s grant in 2015 – but this was frozen pending the announced review.
So far, not even the terms of reference of the review have been announced.
The outgoing chief executive Ian Jones and chairman of S4C Huw Jones told the committee that the lack of clarity over the review was creating a period of financial uncertainty.
They said the UK grant could be cut by £700,000 for 2017-2018, from £6.762m to £6.058m.
The remainder of S4C’s funding comes from £74.5m raised by the BBC licence fee arrangements.
There is also concern that the number of members of the S4C Authority – effectively the board of directors – has gone down by three since last year.
An industry insider said: “There are now only six authority members including the chairman instead of nine, as was the case previously. From a governance point of view, this is not desirable, particularly in an organisation which has a chairman with especially strong views.”
In addition to Huw Jones, the current members are former BBC journalist Guto Harri; Professor Elan Closs Stephens, who is also the national representative from Wales on the BBC Trust; John Davies, the former leader of Pembrokeshire County Council; Hugh Evans, the leader of Denbighshire County Council; and Sian Lewis, chief executive of Menter Iaith Caerdydd.
Two former board members – Carol Bell and Marian Wyn Jones – left when their terms of office expired, and Aled Eirug, the former BBC Wales head of news and current affairs, resigned when he was appointed as Ofcom’s content board member for Wales.
A spokesman for S4C said: “We understand that the DCMS will be advertising shortly for new board members. We also understand that DCMS is hoping to launch the review soon.”
A spokesman for DCMS said: “The S4C Authority can have between four and eight members, plus a chairman. Currently there are three vacancies, and we are working with S4C to appoint up to three new board members.”
It is understood that the terms of reference for the review will be announced “shortly”, although the DCMS spokesman was unable to give a specific timescale.
He was also unable to comment on speculation that a number of people approached to lead the review declined the opportunity to do so.
Until the election of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010, S4C’s funding rose with inflation – an arrangement that was enshrined in law.
But the legal entitlement was repealed, and a deal was done between the UK Government and the BBC under which the bulk of S4C’s funding came from the licence fee. The change resulted in substantial funding cuts.
Some Welsh politicians have argued that responsibility for S4C should be transferred to the Welsh Government, but recently Alun Cairns, the Secretary of State for Wales, ruled that out.
An industry insider said: “It’s no surprise that the DCMS is finding it difficult to find someone to lead the review.
“It’s a bit of a thankless task, and you’re likely to leave nobody satisfied.”