Although administratively and editorially part of the BBC, until 2013 BBC Monitoring did not receive any funding from the
licence fee; instead it was funded directly by its
stakeholders as well as by subscriptions from official and commercial bodies throughout the world. The principal stakeholder is the
Cabinet Office and subscriptions were also received from the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the
Ministry of Defence and the
BBC World Service. finding the £25 million required from the licence fee. Reported on BBC News (17 January 2011), BBC Monitoring cut 72 posts following a £3 million cut in funding over the next two years. Director of BBC Monitoring, Chris Westcott, said: "Regrettably service cuts and post closures are inevitable given the scale of the cut in funding." The proposal was to cut £3m from the service's costs by closing the 72 posts – about 16% of its staff – but expected to create 18 new posts. The BBC agreed to finance Monitoring from 2013/14 as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement which froze the annual colour licence fee at £145.50 for six years. The agreement also saw the corporation agree to take over the Foreign Office-funded World Service from 2014. The
House of Commons Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees strongly condemned the gradual scaling down of BBC Monitoring's capabilities in two separate reports published in late 2016. The reports claimed that BBC Monitoring's operations have been adversely affected by cuts. Both Committees demanded proper funding to ensure BBC Monitoring's future. ==Leadership==