Roles and responsibilities
- Jason is Director of Production for BBC Local and sits on the England Committee.
- He has responsibility for leading teams working across a vast and unique set of television, radio and online services for BBC Local across England from Cumbria to the Channel Islands.
- He leads 2000 staff across 39 Local Radio Stations, 43 News Websites, and 13 regional television news programmes at 6:30pm on BBC One.
- BBC Local delivers investigative journalism across all local platforms, BBC network television, and on the BBC News App – and is the home of local sport in England on air and online.
Biography
Jason Horton is Director of Production for BBC Local, leading teams working in television, radio, and online across England.
He started his career as a BBC Regional News Trainee in the East of England, working as a local radio journalist in Cambridge before becoming Look East’s TV reporter based at Three Counties Radio. He then moved back to Cambridge to produce Look East before moving to Three Counties as Assistant Editor and for a time, Acting Editor.
In 2005 Jason became Editor of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, where he led the radio station to record audiences.
In 2010 Jason moved to the South as Head of Region, before becoming Head of the South, South East, London and East in 2019.
In early 2022 Jason became Acting Director of BBC England before being appointed Director of Production for BBC Local in December 2022. Since then, he has led a major transformation of the BBC’s Local services, opening an additional 130 journalist posts across the country to enhance the BBC’s digital local news provision.
Under Jason’s leadership, weekly traffic to BBC Local’s online news services has increased to 16.9m (over 13% ahead of target), and local stories now represent almost 30% of all news articles read on the BBC News website and app. Today, BBC Local’s news services are used by almost half the adult population in England each week – and the regional 6:30pm news programmes are the UK’s biggest TV news shows across any channel.
Annual remuneration (as at July 2025)
- £185,000 - £189,999
Expenses and central bookings
Expenses are costs incurred by BBC staff on behalf of the BBC and claimed through the BBC's expenses system.
Central bookings are costs incurred on behalf of the BBC and booked through the BBC's central bookings system.
Expenses and central bookings for the 2024/25 financial year onwards are available to view here.
Downloads
- Jason Horton’s expenses Q4 2023-24
- Jason Horton’s central bookings Q4 2023-24
- Jason Horton’s expenses Q3 2023-24
- Jason Horton’s central bookings Q3 2023-24
- Jason Horton’s expenses Q2 2023-24
- Jason Horton’s central bookings Q2 2023-24
- Jason Horton had no expenses paid in Q1 2023-24
- Jason Horton had no central bookings in Q1 2023-24
- Jason Horton had no expenses paid in in Q4 2022-23
- Jason Horton had no central bookings in Q4 2022-23
- Jason Horton had no expenses paid in in Q3 2023-23
- Jason Horton had no central bookings in Q3 2022-23
- Jason Horton’s expenses Q2 2022-23
- Jason Horton’s central bookings Q2 2022-23
Gifts and Hospitality Register
Gifts and hospitality may only be accepted in line with BBC policy.
Downloads
- Jason Horton had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q3 2023-24
- Jason Horton had no gifts or hospitality to declare in Q2 2023-24
Declaration of personal interests
Staff must make a declaration of their personal and business interests, including any memberships or directorships of public or industry bodies, and any shareholdings, as well as any interests that their immediate families may also have.
A summary is published where there is something to declare and where there is nothing to declare. Occasionally an individual will have something to declare but due to the personal nature of the declaration we do not publish details as to do so would breach the General Data Protection Regulation.
This information is published annually, although if any amendments are made during the year an updated summary will be published if necessary as soon as it is available.