As Huw Edwards faces a doable jail sentence after admitting accessing indecent pictures of youngsters as younger as seven, there are inquiries to be requested in regards to the BBC administration’s dealing with of the scandal and the affect on its status.
When was Edwards given a pay rise ?
Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,000 for the 12 months 2023-24. He was suspended on full wage in July 2023 after allegations within the Solar, unrelated to his courtroom case, and resigned in April 2024 on “medical recommendation”. The BBC stated he didn’t obtain a payoff.
The BBC was conscious of his arrest on “severe prices” in November. But Edwards nonetheless acquired about £200,000 of public cash from licence charge payers for the 5 months after his arrest as much as his resignation in April.
The BBC faces calls to clarify how that use of public cash was justified, in addition to when and by whom that call was taken.
The wage he acquired included a £40,000 pay rise, prompting questions over when he acquired an increase, earlier than or after his July 2023 suspension?
What did the BBC know of the police investigation into Edwards?
BBC administration discovered Edwards had been arrested on 8 November however stored this from BBC Information who, like the remainder of the media, discovered on Monday.
BBC Information stories the data was given “in strict confidence by the police and was to not be shared”.
However what precisely the BBC knew in November shouldn’t be clear.
Its assertion after Edwards’ responsible pleas stated the BBC had been made conscious of allegations of “severe offences”. It added it had been “shocked to listen to the main points which have emerged in courtroom at this time”.
The BBC investigations correspondent Joe Pike informed Newsnight on Wednesday he had been capable of affirm that the BBC was informed these “severe offences” involved youngster abuse pictures.
It might be the BBC was conscious of the overall nature of the allegations however not the element of the variety of pictures or the categorisation of these pictures or ages of the kids in them.
What did the BBC do upon listening to about Edwards’ arrest?
The BBC would have taken authorized and HR recommendation. To sack Edwards on arrest might be prejudicial to any future trial, or if prices weren’t subsequently introduced. It was additionally conscious of “vital threat to his well being”.
But it stated if he had been charged, “it might act instantly to dismiss him”. To do this earlier than any trial is also seen as prejudicial. Actually, the BBC explanations for its actions throw up as many questions as they reply.
It has to steadiness its obligation of care to an worker who had an expectation of privateness, and its duties to the general public who fund it. Whether or not it bought that steadiness proper is vital to its dealing with, and any fallout.
In the long run it didn’t should sack Edwards as a result of he resigned two months earlier than he was formally charged in June. As an alternative, it allowed him to proceed on full pay, and go away on his personal phrases in April, a call stated to have angered many insiders on the broadcaster.
What occurred to inside BBC investigations into Edwards?
Edwards was suspended in July 2023 after his spouse recognized him because the unnamed senior broadcasting determine on the centre of allegations that a teenager was paid for sexually express pictures.
After that, BBC Two’s Newsnight broadcast allegations regarding Edwards’ behaviour in the direction of junior members of employees. The BBC promised investigations into each.
In February an unbiased report by Deloitte into the BBC’s complaints process discovered the necessity for “better consistency” in how complaints had been processed. However no additional particulars of the investigations have thus far been made public.
The Met police dominated out motion over the Solar’s story, which featured allegations made by the mom of the younger individual. After Edwards’ responsible plea to unrelated prices in courtroom, she informed the Solar she was nonetheless begging for solutions. “We bought no solutions when Huw give up from the BBC and have been left at nighttime.
“I anticipated the BBC investigators to wish to undergo these messages and proof with me to clarify what was occurring to my youngster on the time, however they didn’t appear ,” she stated.
Newsnight reported it didn’t know if the investigation into its claims had been concluded, or if findings could be revealed. It appeared, the programme heard, that after Edwards’ departure from the BBC the investigation disappeared.
Will the BBC director common face a parliamentary grilling over the dealing with of the disaster?
The tradition secretary, Lisa Nandy, instantly known as an pressing phone assembly with the BBC’s director common, Tim Davie, indicating simply how a lot stress the company faces over its dealing with of the scenario.
It isn’t unimaginable Davie, who declined invites to seem on BBC Radio 4’s At the moment programme and Newsnight, may discover himself answering questions earlier than the tradition, media and sport choose committee after summer time recess.
The licence charge, by way of which the company is funded, might be reviewed in 2027. After years of Conservative opposition to the funding mannequin, Keir Starmer has stated: “We’re dedicated in our manifesto to the BBC and to the licensing scheme. There’s going to be some extra thought between now and [2027], however we’re dedicated.”
However media and Westminster observers might be looking ahead to any indicators of Labour exploiting the Edwards case as an excuse for a change of guard on the prime – and maybe the elimination of Davie, as soon as a Conservative councillor candidate and deputy chair of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative occasion within the Nineties.
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