I HAVE received a huge postbag, both e-mail and letter, from people concerned about the future of the BBC.

Despite the huge increase in the number of television channels people can now access, the BBC is still one of the UK’s most successful and loved institutions.

People value the BBC’s independence and I believe it is vital that it retains editorial independence, financial stability, and a core public service broadcasting mission.

The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC and a new charter will take effect from January.

It is vital we get the content of the new charter right.

Currently the plan is to transfer responsibility for setting policy on free TV licences and the cost of funding free TV licences for the over 75s from Government to the BBC.

I think that is wrong as it will lead to changes to the policy without democratic accountability.

Parliament should be responsible for funding and setting such policies.

The draft charter requires the BBC to be ‘distinctive’.

It is already distinctive across its services and we cannot get into a situation whereby its competitors or critics argue that specific successful programmes are not ‘distinctive’ enough and therefore should not be made.

You may remember that last year the then culture secretary caused uproar and concern when he said it was debatable whether the BBC should be making programmes like Strictly Come Dancing.

The BBC should be as transparent as possible and it is right that the National Audit office (NAO) is allowed to investigate its publicly funded areas.

However, allowing the NAO to audit the BBC’s private commercial operations could place these operations at a significant market disadvantage.

These operations are not publicly funded and so it is not the NAO’s job to scrutinise them.

This could have the effect of reducing returns for BBC Worldwide and thereby limiting the extent to which the BBC is able to subsidise the licence fee through its commercial operations.

It is our BBC and we must do all we can to ensure it remains independent, is financially stable and has a core public service ethos.