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BBC bosses have been put on notice by the new culture secretary Lisa Nandy regarding failures in dealing with disgraced presenter Huw Edwards.
Ms Nandy met with BBC executives on Thursday night to discuss “serious concerns” about the way the corporation handled the investigation into Edwards, alleged complaints and warnings made about him, and a £40,000 pay rise given to him while he was off work being investigated.
The former news presenter who also narrated major events like the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, has pleaded guilty to three counts of serious crimes involving indecent images of children.
With the current BBC charter set to end in December 2027 and talks about its renewal about to begin, it is understood that Ms Nandy made it clear that the saga has become a serious issue of public trust in the BBC.
Ms Nandy apparently wanted to know details of the BBC’s internal investigations into Edwards. She wanted to know details of what happened between April and November last year, when revelations about his conduct first came out and he was investigated internally.
Ms Nandy also wanted more details on the circumstances which led to the situation.
She also questioned the recent pay rise given to him while he was under investigation and the details of his pension with the corporation. The pay rise will have increased the value of his pension value and Ms Nandy is understood to want to know if any of that could be recovered.
Ms Nandy is also understood to be dissatisfied with the answers she received on Thursday and has asked BBC director general Tim Davie and others to come back with better explanations for what happened and what further action can be taken.
It comes as the BBC has admitted bosses knew last year that Edwards had been arrested for child abuse image offences, but said police told them not to reveal the fact.
The veteran newsreader was arrested on 8 November, but that was not made public until this week when he was charged with making indecent photographs of children and admitted his guilt in court.
The corporation has said it knew last November of Edwards’ arrest on suspicion of serious offences but continued employing him until April.
A BBC source said police told the corporation not to share the information.
He was suspended until he finally quit his job in April this year on medical advice.
Mr Davie maintained the corporation was not aware of details of what Edwards was suspected of when he was arrested last year.
He told BBC News on Thursday: “We were very shocked. No one knew about the specifics of what we heard over the last few days, which have been deeply disturbing…
“The police came to us and gave us information that they had arrested Mr Edwards.
“But they wanted to be assured of total confidence and the reason they rang us at that point… It’s a technical process, which is to ensure employees are protected and there’s no risk.”
The BBC boss said the corporation was “not sitting on anything that I think we need to share with the police or is of a serious nature that would make me feel that we hadn’t followed up properly”.
Edwards on Wednesday pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children, including two sexual videos of a boy as young as seven.
The 62-year-old journalist admitted at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to having 41 indecent images of children on his phone, seven of which were category A – the most extreme kind.
Also among the 377 sexual images discovered by police were 12 category B images, and 22 category C images.
Five of the category A images featured children aged between 13 and 15, while at least two were moving images that depicted a child believed to be “between seven and nine”, the court was told.
He is due in court again on 16 September.
Mr Davie said the corporation was considering legal action to get back some of its payments to Edwards.
Asked about the ex-newsreader’s pension, Mr Davie said the sums were “very difficult to claw back, nigh-on impossible”.
He added: “When it comes to pay, again, (it’s) legally challenging (to recover), but we’ll look at all options.”
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spokesperson said: “The culture secretary is, like the whole nation, shocked by Huw Edwards’ abhorrent actions, and her thoughts are with the victims whose lives have been destroyed. It is now for the judiciary to decide on an appropriate sentence.
“The BBC is operationally and editorially independent, but given the incredibly serious nature of this issue, the secretary of state has spoken to the BBC to raise concerns on a number of points regarding the handling of their own investigations into Huw Edwards, what safeguards and processes had been followed in this case, and, additionally, what further action may be taken, especially with regard to the handling of licence fee payers’ money.
“She sought assurance that the BBC has robust processes in place regarding non-editorial complaints, and the handling of complex contractual matters, so that in future it can act at pace and be transparent with the public at the earliest opportunity to ensure trust is maintained.
“She has asked to be kept updated by the BBC on future developments in this particular case.”
The corporation has previously been damaged by other scandals involving children and high-profile presenters, including Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall, and this latest episode has been seized on by critics of the BBC as a reason to question its future.
Before Ms Nandy met with the BBC, the campaign group Defund the BBC issued a statement saying: “License Fee payers have once again been treated appallingly. The corporation’s reputation is, once again, in tatters.”
