The BBC has a serious Scotland problem yet nobody is talking about it

One of the defining characteristics of the 2020s is the media tiptoeing around the politics of the right, whilst paying scant regard to issues of fairness and accuracy when it comes to those considered liberal or left-wing.

The imbalance is particularly striking when it appears within the news output of the national broadcaster, the BBC.

The BBC appears terrified of being accused of impartiality against the right, both at home and abroad. Yet it is hard to argue that the same standards are maintained towards the left and centre-left.

When it comes to imbalance directed at the nationalist movements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the failure of standards is glaring.

It is not without cause that even the most measured and mild of independence supporters remain uncomfortable with the behaviour of BBC Scotland towards the SNP and the wider Yes movement since the 2014 referendum.

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Over the last week these concerns have crystallised. It is now clear that the BBC has a Scottish problem, or more specifically an SNP problem, regarding issues such as editorial standards of impartiality, accuracy and fairness.

However, such a discussion may surprise many Scots, even those well abreast of current affairs. Although specific cases, which raise questions around the BBC’s behaviour in Scotland, are abundant and regular, there has been a distinct lack of reporting across the wider Scottish media.

There seems to be something of a wall of silence when it comes to most media outlets picking up on concerns held by Scottish nationalists related to the BBC’s news output.

That is strange given that support for independence now outstrips support for the union, and has done in most opinion polling for more than the last year.

In the 17 polls since January 2025, Yes led in ten. It might be much wiser, in this age of declining audience engagement, for news outlets which cared about their futures to at least try to engage with the interests of half the country.

There is a vast and untapped audience out there which is being very badly served.

Let’s explore some of the information which has emerged over the last week, related to BBC standards in Scotland.

First, we learned that BBC Scotland has issued more corrections regarding errors in the last three years than BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland and all regional English BBC bureaux combined.

Next up came the agonising process of the BBC finding the grace to apologise over a glaring error in its coverage of the recent Scottish budget.

It began when the BBC reported that “more than half of workers in Scotland will pay more tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK”.

The facts are - whether the SNP’s opponents like it or not - the direct opposite: more than half of workers in Scotland will pay less tax than if they lived in England.

The SNP government rightly complained. Culture Secretary Angus Robertson wrote to the broadcaster about the “misreporting”. He then revealed that the BBC had apologised to him personally but “refused an on-air correction”.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson raised a formal complaint with the BBC (Image: PA)

The BBC would eventually issue a correction on air which said: “We would like to correct a mistake made in this news summary yesterday, where we said the Scottish budget would mean more than half of workers will pay more tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK.

“The tax changes announced in Holyrood will actually lead to 55% of workers in Scotland paying less tax compared to other parts of the UK. We apologise for this error.”

In his letter of complaint to the BBC’s director-general regarding the misreporting, Angus Robertson accused the broadcaster of following different journalistic standards for the Scottish and UK governments.

Robertson said that if the report had been about “a UK Government Budget” then none of the ensuing errors would have occurred, including “the mistake in the first place”, “the lack of correction during the programme”, and “the subsequent unwillingness to make an on-air correction”.

Also this week, we learned that the BBC had finally issued a correction months after its ‘star’ political interviewer Laura Kuenssberg wrongly claimed that the UK government was spending £10billion in Scotland.

The misreporting occurred in October last year during an interview with John Swinney in which the presenter claimed that the UK government was spending £10billion on Clyde shipbuilding.

The BBC has now finally issued a correction saying: “In fact, it is the Norwegian government, not the UK Government, that is spending £10billion with BAE building ships on the Clyde. We are happy to make this clear.”

Back in December, Question Time aired an error on the highly flammable issue of race. At the time, claims had been made about one-in-three children in Glasgow apparently not speaking English as their first language.

The question on screen, however, stated that the children “don’t speak fluent English”. There is clearly an important, factual distinction.

Sunder Katwala, director of Britain’s Future, the charity which promotes education on immigration and human rights, called it “an appalling editorial error”.

Look, all journalists can make mistakes. When it happens we should apologise. But there is a pattern emerging within the BBC when it comes to Scotland.

This isn’t just about editorial standards and the need for factual reporting. We live in an era when trust in the media is vital, but at its lowest ebb. The BBC should be championing trust in journalism, not eroding it.

Neil Mackay is the Herald’s Writer-at-Large. He’s a multi-award winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, extremism, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics