BBC Trust

The Trust has published a progress update from the BBC Executive on areas identified for improvement in the 2011 review of impartiality in science coverage conducted by Steve Jones.

A follow-up report to Prof. Jones review, published in 2012, found that overall good progress had been made on the issues he had identified, but that there were some areas where progress could only be properly assessed in the longer term or where progress had been slightly slower than expected. These were:

• Progress on gender balance for contributors and presenters
• Feedback and effect on output of new science training workshops for BBC staff
• Effect of science seminars with academics and scientists
• Progress in widening the range of universities/institutions across the UK’s nations and regions that are used to source stories and contributors.

The Trust has now published a progress report on these areas from the BBC Executive, along with its own observations. The Trust has welcomed the progress that has been made.

The progress update can be found here:

Trust conclusions on the Executive report on science impartiality review actions, PDF (275KB)