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The BBC has brought in a senior Deloitte partner specialising in forensic investigations to help oversee a review into the internal procedures that failed to escalate complaints against star news reader Huw Edwards.
The corporation is assessing, via several probes, the way it handled allegations that the now-suspended presenter paid for sexually explicit images from a young person and why they were not escalated more quickly to its board.
Dame Elan Closs Stephens, acting BBC chair, told the House of Lords communications committee on Tuesday that the review of internal procedures would be overseen by Sir Nick Serota, a non-executive BBC board member, and Deloitte’s Simon Cuerden. He runs the fraud, data and disputes team in the consulting firm’s forensic business.
Director-general Tim Davie, who also appeared before the committee, said the BBC had launched a separate investigation into the conduct of Edwards, who is receiving hospital treatment for mental health issues.
He said this fact-finding probe could take weeks or even months as it sifted through the allegations against the BBC’s highest-paid news reader.
Insiders say it could be difficult for Edwards to return, citing the claims that he sent “inappropriate messages” to some colleagues.
Davie said the BBC had spoken to the original claimant, whose decision to speak to The Sun newspaper triggered the scandal. Closs Stephens said the corporation’s plan of action had been shared by letter with culture secretary Lucy Frazer.
In that letter, Closs Stephens said it was “too early to determine if a disciplinary case may be required” against Edwards.
Separately, Davie told peers that the BBC had begun an internal probe into future funding arrangements, which would feed into a previously announced government review that is expected to begin later this year.
“We need to look at the options,” said Davie, adding that he was committed to publishing a new strategy about the publicly funded corporation’s future and priorities before the end of this year in an effort to inform public debate.
In January 2022, ministers imposed one of the fiercest funding squeezes on the BBC in decades, freezing the licence fee at £159 per household for two years. That forced the corporation, whose real-term funding has fallen by about one-third since 2010, to make new sweeping cuts.
Announcing the review last year, the government said the “broadcasting sector continues to change rapidly [and] an increasing number of households are choosing not to hold a TV licence, as fewer people choose to watch live TV or other activities that require a TV licence”.
