BBC apologises to household at centre of Huw Edwards scandal

The BBC has apologised to the household concerned within the Huw Edwards scandal over the way in which it dealt with their criticism.

The BBC confronted accusations it didn’t reply shortly sufficient to complaints from the household of a teen, after it took seven weeks for allegations of inappropriate behaviour to be put to Edwards.

Edwards, who was the BBC’s highest-earning newsreader, was accused of paying a young person hundreds of kilos for sexually specific pictures.

In July 2023 the BBC commissioned a evaluate of its non-editorial complaints insurance policies and processes, which promised to “assess how some complaints are red-flagged up the organisation”.

He additionally ordered an extra “factfinding investigation”.

Now, seven months later, the report has discovered there was a necessity for “greater consistency” in how complaints on the company are processed, and revealed that the preliminary criticism about Edwards was not logged on the related case administration system so couldn’t be seen by senior figures.

The report additionally highlighted that there was no documented course of for contact and follows-ups with the complainant, so when makes an attempt to make contact have been unsuccessful, the plan of action was not clear.

‘We settle for the method enhancements in full’

Commenting on the evaluate, revealed immediately, Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC Group Chief Operating Officer mentioned: “Although our present processes and programs are, on the entire, working successfully, this evaluate reveals that we have to be a part of them up higher to make sure regardless of how a non-editorial criticism comes into the BBC it’s escalated swiftly, when wanted, and handled by the fitting folks.

“Where the review identifies process improvements we accept those in full, and we are delivering on an action plan with a number of enhancements already in place.

“The report identifies particular course of shortcomings within the presenter case. The preliminary criticism on this case was not escalated shortly sufficient to senior administration and now we have apologised to the complainant for this.”

The report, which was led by Ms Tavaziva and carried out by Deloitte, also found that some employees felt nervous about raising a complaint with the BBC, particularly if it was about a more senior member of staff or a high profile figure.

Additionally it suggested the BBC make “higher use of expertise” to present a full image of every criticism throughout all groups coping with them.

Around per week after news of the allegations towards Edwards broke, BBC director-general Tim Davie and different BBC bosses have been questioned in parliament at a pre-arranged Lords Communications Committee session.

‘Not convey the BBC into disrepute’ clause

At the time Mr Davie mentioned: “We have been in touch with the complainant, we wish to be engaged and appropriately listening and understanding their concern”.

He was additionally requested about holding the BBC’s high-paid expertise to account, responding: “I think the history of this industry is such that we should all be concerned and appropriately diligent around the abuse of power by people in powerful positions.

“You want to make sure that you are very, very clear on what your expectations are culturally, in addition to the coverage.”

He went on to say he was “proud” of the corporation’s code of conduct and values, calling the whistleblowing process by which staff can confidentially report concerns to an external support at work line “a protected place”.

He also confirmed to peers that high-profile presenters at the corporation have a clause in their contract about not bringing the BBC into disrepute.

Original allegations

Allegations that Edwards paid a teenager more than £35,000 for sexually explicit photos were first published in The Sun on Friday 7 July. The paper did not name him at the time.

Five days later, the Metropolitan Police said they did not believe any criminal activity had taken place and would be taking no further action.

In a letter to BBC News, the young person at the centre of the Edwards controversy said via lawyers nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the then unnamed presenter.

Following intense speculation over the identity of the BBC presenter, Edwards’ spouse, Vicky Flind, confirmed him as the man at the centre of the allegations.

In an announcement, she mentioned he was “affected by critical psychological well being points” and was “receiving in-patient hospital care”.

Edwards has been absent from screens for the reason that story first broke.

As the face of BBC News At 10, the 62-year-old has beforehand led election night time protection, and broke the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s demise. He was final on air on Wednesday 5 July, masking the King’s go to to Scotland.