BBC Trustee appointments announced

The government today announced the remaining eight positions on the 12-strong BBC Trust, which replaces the Board of Governors from January 1, 2007.

Women dominate the selection which includes executives from broadcasting, regulating, newspaper, commerce and economics backgrounds.

Trust Chairman Michael Grade said: "The new BBC Trust has a very different role from that of the Board of Governors it replaces. The new Charter requires that the Trust is independent of BBC management representing the interests of licence fee payers. We must consult the public to ensure our decisions are properly informed by those who pay for the BBC.

"The Trust will recognise that every licence fee payer also has an interest in the wider choice offered across the industry."

Grade added: "For the first time, the public will help set the strategic agenda for its BBC."

Each trustees receives £35,000 remuneration for their role, as set by the government, with the vice-chairman receiving £75,000, and the chairman £140,000.

The new trustees are the trust's vice-chairman, Dr Chitra Bharucha, a former consultant haematologist who chairs a General Medical Council panel; former economics editor of The Independent and member of the Competition Commission, Diane Coyle; Alison Hastings, a former Newcastle Chronicle editor who becomes the trustee for England; Patricia Hodgson, the former chief executive of the Independent Television Commission (ITC); Rotha Johnston, an independent businesswoman who becomes the trustee for Northern Ireland; former S4C executive and vice-president of the British Board of Film Classification, Janet Lewis-Jones, who becomes the trustee for Wales; David Liddiment, former director of programmes at ITV and non-executive creative director All3Media; and Mehmuda Mian Pritchard, a solicitor and Independent Police Complaints Commissioner for London and the South East.

Existing governors Grade, Dermot Gleeson, Richard Tait and Jeremy Peat, who becomes trustee for Scotland, make up the other four positions on the trust.