BBC Trust claims £2,026 expenses for Sky

The BBC Trustees claimed £2,026 from the corporation for Sky subscriptions in the 2007/8 financial year, details of their expenses show.

Members of the Trust may be loaned audio-visual equipment by the BBC; chairman Sir Michael Lyons was loaned a TV and DVD recorder worth £1,069. The equipment remains the property of the BBC.

"Trust members are offered home use of audiovisual equipment to enable them to experience the full range of television and digital radio channels available (including satellite subscriptions) in support of their responsibility supervising the BBC’s services and their operation within the wider media market," said the Trust. "Satellite subscriptions are capped at the approximate cost of a basic high definition subscription."

The Trust announced in April that it would publish members' expenses "in line with its commitment to transparency and openness". The details released today cover until April, just before the launch of Freesat, the subscription-free satellite service part-backed and developed by the BBC.

Overall the expenses totalled £147,373, with the largest sum of £30,976 claimed by the Trust member for Scotland.