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This press release was updated on 18/01/2011

Â鶹Éç Monitoring today announced spending cuts and proposed post closures in response to the decision by the Cabinet Office, following last October's HM Government Comprehensive Spending Review, to cut £1.5m per annum in 2011/12 from Â鶹Éç Monitoring's current grant of £23.2m, followed by a further cut in income of £1.5m per annum in 2012/13, taking Â鶹Éç Monitoring's grant to £20.2m. This represents £3m cuts over two years and follows a cut of £1.4m by the Cabinet Office in April 2010.

Announcing the cuts package to staff today, the Director of Â鶹Éç Monitoring, Chris Westcott, said that: "regrettably service cuts and post closures are inevitable given the scale of the cut in funding from the Cabinet Office. We are now beginning a period of consultation with staff on our proposals."

Â鶹Éç Monitoring proposes to meet these cuts to our budget by closing 72 posts – about 16%. 18 new posts would be created.

Notes to Editors

Â鶹Éç Monitoring supplies news, information, and comment gathered from open mass media sources around the world.

Under the terms of the new Â鶹Éç Licence Fee Agreement, Â鶹Éç Monitoring will be funded by the licence fee from FY 13/14. Until then, the Agreement states that "The Government will continue to fund Â鶹Éç Monitoring at CSR-agreed levels for 2011/12 and 2012/13".

Financial Year / Cabinet Office funding £m
2010/11 – £23.2
2011/12 – £21.7
2012/13 – £20.2

It operates around the clock to monitor more than 3,000 radio, TV, press, internet and news agency sources. It then selects vital information; translating it into English from up to 100 languages from 150 countries, and delivering it online for immediacy and ease of access.

This extensive and growing range of sources enables Â鶹Éç Monitoring to provide distinctive, authoritative and reliable information and analysis to its Stakeholders (the Cabinet Office and agencies, the Ministry of Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Â鶹Éç World Service) and customers including media organisations, universities, governments, embassies, multinational companies and charities around the world.

Â鶹Éç Press Office