Peacock Committee


The Peacock Committee, was a review into financing of the BBC. It was initiated by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher on 27 March 1985 and reporting on 29 May 1986. The committee was led by Professor Alan Peacock. The other 6 members were Samuel Brittan, Judith Chalmers, Jeremy Hardie, Professor Alastair Hetherington, Lord Quinton, and Sir Peter Reynolds. .
The government had expected the committee to report that the television licence fee used to fund the BBC should be scrapped. However, the Peacock Committee favoured retaining the licence fee as they believed it was the 'least worst' option.
The immediate recommendations of the report
were: