This is taken from The Guardian:

Lord turns spotlight on Birt and the BBC

by Julia Day
Tuesday May 31, 2005

The government has been asked to reveal precise details of Lord Birt's relationship with the BBC and in particular his former acolyte and director general of the corporation Mark Thompson.

Questions are also being asked about his influence on the green paper about the future of the BBC and the extent of Lord Birt's power as an adviser to Tony Blair.

The Conservative peer, Lord Hanningfield, has tabled a set of questions in the House of Lords, asking for details of discussions held by Lord Birt, the former BBC director general, with Mr Thompson and the board of governors.

"There is a legitimate and pressing question that needs to be answered as to exactly what role has John Birt played and continues to play in the reform of the BBC.

"Clearly there is a suspicion that despite leaving the BBC he is now using his position as an unelected and unaccountable advisor to the prime minister to influence events behind the scenes," said Lord Hanningfield.

"Given the scale of the job losses involved and the disruption that has been caused so far it is time for the government to come clean and detail John Birt's involvement in the affair."

He has raised concerns about Lord Birt's influence drawing up the green paper - the former director general, who acts as "a blue skies" thinker in Downing Street, fought and lost a battle for reforms at the corporation, which is seen as unwelcome meddling by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell.

Lord Birt backed the recommendations of a panel proposing a new regulator to govern the BBC and "top-slicing" of the licence fee. But the culture secretary secured the backing of Tony Blair for her own programme of less radical reform and won.

However, his desire to retain influence over the BBC is unbowed - he is to make his first public speech for years at this year's MacTaggart lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in August, in what is being seen as an effort to reassert his influence over broadcasting policy.

He was said to be furious after he failed to influence the green paper, and is likely to use the speech in August as a final attempt to lay out his vision ahead of a white paper in October.

The questions Lord Hanningfield has formerly asked the government to answer are: "Whether the Lord Birt, since his appointment as the prime minister's strategy advisor, has met i) Mr Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC and ii) the board of governors and on each occasion what issue were discussed."

And: "What advice has Lord Birt... given in regard to the reform of the BBC."

Lord Hanningfield has also asked what discussions the prime minister and the culture secretary have held with Mr Thompson and the BBC board of governors.

The McKinsey question

He has asked a separate set of questions about the government's links to the management consultants McKinsey, which employs Lord Birt as a media advisor, highlighting parliamentary concern about a possible conflict of interests.

The questions include asking whether Lord Birt has ever met an employee or representative from McKinsey in his No 10 office, and how much the government has spent on services supplied by the consultants since coming to power in 1997.

Lord Hanningfield has also asked how many civil servants from Downing Street are on secondment to McKinsey, and vice versa, as well as what government contracts the company holds and how much they are worth.

All of the questions have been asked in writing, rather than verbally in the chamber, and written answers from the government are expected in about two weeks.

A spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office said it would not make any comment on the parliamentary questions Lord Hanningfield has asked, ahead of the official answers being published.

In March the government flatly refused to reveal what advice Lord Birt has given on the future of the BBC.

It claimed publication of his advice would "harm the frankness and candour of internal discussions" on the BBC's royal charter, which has since been renewed.

The government also denied it had hired McKinsey, a relationship that would compromise Lord Birt's position as an unpaid adviser at No 10.

Following charter renewal Mr Thompson announced a series of controversial cost-cutting measures including 4,000 job losses, which sparked last week's 24-hour strike.

Any indication that Lord Birt influenced Mr Thompson's reforms is likely to inflame the already heated climate between the BBC director general, his staff and the broadcasting unions.

Lord Birt's eight-year tenure as the director general of the BBC is characterised as a period of over-reliance on management-speak and form-filling, rather than the more emotional approach of his successor Greg Dyke. During his time at the corporation he fell out with the now chairman of the BBC board of governors, Michael Grade.