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Roles and responsibilities

• As senior independent director on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Board, Caroline is responsible for upholding and protecting the independence of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ by acting in the public interest and exercising independent judgement.
• She is also responsible for ensuring that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain and promotes its public purposes.
• Caroline helps ensure that the Board’s decision-making is in the public interest, informed by the best interests of the audience and with appropriate regard to the impact of decisions on the wider media market in the UK.
• Non-executive directors play a key role in ensuring that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ maintains the highest standards of corporate governance, particularly with respect to financial reporting, internal control and risk management.

Term of appointment: 3 April 2025 – 2 April 2029

Biography

Caroline Thomson has had a long career in the media, arts and public service in the UK.

For 12 years she served as a member of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s Executive Committee, ending as Chief Operating Officer when she stepped down in 2012. For ten years she chaired Digital UK, now Everyone TV, the body responsible for digital terrestrial television, and was a director of the media group, Cumberland News.

In the arts world, she has been chief executive, a trustee and now deputy chair of the English National Ballet, a trustee of the National Gallery Trust and, until 2016, was deputy chair of the National Gallery.

Caroline is a non-executive director of Videndum plc and chair of Quasar Energy. Caroline was also chair of Oxfam GB until 2020.

Caroline lives with her husband, Lord Liddle of Carlisle, in northwest Cumbria.

She is a Deputy Lieutenant for Cumbria. She is a fellow of the Royal Television Society and of the University of Cumbria. She has an honorary degree from the University of York.

Fees

The fees for non-executive directors of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Board are set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Non-executive directors receive a base fee of £33,000 per annum.

Total fees: £33,000 per annum.

Expenses and central bookings

Expenses are costs incurred by ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ staff on behalf of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and claimed through the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s expenses system.

Central bookings are costs incurred on behalf of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and booked through the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s central bookings system. Both expenses and central bookings are published every three months.

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Gifts and Hospitality Register

Gifts and hospitality may only be accepted in line with ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ policy. Information about gifts and hospitality is published every three months.

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Declaration of personal interests

Staff must make a declaration of their personal and business interests, including any memberships or directorships of public or industry bodies, and any shareholdings, as well as any interests that their immediate families may also have.

A summary is published where there is something to declare and where there is nothing to declare. Occasionally an individual will have something to declare but due to the personal nature of the declaration we do not publish details as to do so would breach the General Data Protection Regulation.

This information is published annually, although if any amendments are made during the year an updated summary will be published if necessary as soon as it is available.

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Caroline Thomson's Declaration of Personal Interests will be published shortly.