The BBC is constitutionally established by a Royal Charter. An accompanying Agreement recognises its editorial independence and sets out its public obligations in detail.
The current Royal Charter was granted to the BBC on 19 September 2006. It took full effect from 1 January 2007.
The text of the Royal Charter and Agreement are available on the BBC Trust site.
Before the current Royal Charter was granted, a review took place and the Government published its Green Paper: A strong BBC, independent of government. In May 2005 the BBC published its response: Building public value.
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Building public value PDF (266KB)
Building public value text-only version
Government information about Charter Review is on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) website.
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.