The BBC has apologised to the family at the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal as it admitted that their complaint was not escalated quickly enough.
The broadcaster has published a 23-page report which found “shortcomings” over the way it handled allegations that its star presenter paid a teenager £35,000, which fuelled their drug habit, and received explicit images of them over a three-year period.
• Huw Edwards resigns from BBC on ‘medical advice’
It has overhauled its procedures to ensure that the most serious complaints are fast-tracked amid concerns that it failed to recognise the seriousness of the matter and reacted too slowly when the alarm was raised.
The allegations were first reported in July last year by The Sun, which secured an interview with the parents after they became frustrated with the apparent lack of progress by the BBC seven weeks after they first reported their concerns.
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Edwards, who was paid up to £439,000 last year, was suspended on full pay by the BBC after the newspaper’s story was published. A separate investigation into his actions to determine his future with the broadcaster continues.
While it is widely expected that the 62-year old-will not return to his role fronting the flagship News At Ten bulletin, he is understood to be too unwell to participate in the probe after suffering a “serious [mental health] episode” in the wake of the allegations.
The delay is thought to have frustrated bosses who are keen to resolve the situation with a busy news period looming, including a general election.
Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC’s chief operating officer, said the report showed there was room for improvement in the way that complaints are handled after the corporation faced criticism of “complacency” over the way in which it initially dealt with the allegations.
“Although our existing processes and systems are, on the whole, working effectively, this review shows that we need to join them up better to ensure no matter how a non-editorial complaint comes into the BBC it is escalated swiftly, when needed, and dealt with by the right people,” she said.
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“The initial complaint in this case was not escalated quickly enough to senior management and we have apologised to the complainant for this.”
The youngster’s family initially visited a BBC building in Cardiff to alert bosses about Edwards on May 19 before calling to lodge their complaint the following day. The information was passed to the corporate investigations unit, which sent an email to seek further evidence before following up with a phone call two weeks later. But neither attempt to make contact succeeded and it effectively parked its response.
The review, which was conducted with a senior partner from the professional services firm Deloitte, found that the investigations unit failed to recognise the “potential wider significance” of the complaint despite it relating to one of the BBC’s highest-paid stars.
The issue was not logged on the BBC’s case management system, preventing it from being noticed by other staff members, while senior managers and Edwards himself were not informed about the accusations until July 6, seven weeks later.
The BBC was also found to lack a coherent follow-up process, leading to further confusion. “When initial attempts to contact the complainant were unsuccessful, the steps to be taken were not sufficiently clear,” the report said.
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As a result, the BBC is to put in place a more consistent system across the 18 routes through which it receives complaints and set up a central database of issues, with the most potentially complex cases clearly highlighted.
The report also found that the scale of the BBC meant staff struggled to get to grips with the workload. “In several employee feedback meetings, lack of resource was noted as a primary constraint on the effectiveness of teams,” it said.
Last year Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, said that the investigations team had worked on about 250 complaints over the previous six months.
The scandal that engulfed the BBC as a result of Edwards’ alleged activity was compounded by a Newsnight investigation into his behaviour which alleged that he had also been sending inappropriate messages to members of staff. Some of the 80 employees that contributed to the report said they were “nervous” that complaints they had about senior staff members and high-profile stars would not be dealt with properly.
Insiders welcomed the move to fast-track complaints as “sensible”.
