Ex-Ilex chief and RUC reformer could lose posts as result of BBC fall-out

Former Ilex chief executive Aideen McGinley and former chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, Chris Patten, both now sit on the BBC Trust.

Doubts have been raised over the long-term future of the Trust following a series of of controversies at the state broadcaster.

John Whittingdale, Chair of the Commons Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, has said he’d be amazed if the Government wasn’t considering changing the Trust’s governance structure.

“In my view, Ofcom is the obvious overall regulator,” he stated. “It would be really simple to expand their responsibilities to take in the entire regulation currently undertaken by the Trust.”

Former Ilex boss, Mrs McGinley left the local regeneration company to become BBC Trustee for Northern Ireland in late 2012.Back in 1999 the Trust Chair Mr Patten controversially recommended fifty fifty recruitment of Protestants and Catholics to the PSNI and also that the Union Flag no longer be flown from police stations in Northern Ireland.