BBC website £36m 'overspend'

THE BBC went almost £36 million over the intended budget for bbc.co.uk in the past year, it was disclosed today.

The BBC Trust published its conclusions today after completing its extensive review of the website.

The Trust's work revealed that in 2007/08 the actual spend on bbc.co.uk was £110 million, 48% higher than the Service Licence baseline budget.

The baseline budget for 2007/08 was £74.2 million, with an upper limit of permitted spend (baseline plus 10%) of £81.6 million.

Most of this increase was not overspend, but the misallocation of £24.9 million in overheads and costs to other budgets within the BBC, representing poor financial accountability, the Trust found.