Watch as Tim Davie is grilled in Parliament over the BBC presenter scandal involving Huw Edwards.
The BBC director-general, acting chairwoman Dame Elan Closs Stephens and policy director Clare Sumner are appearing before the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee on Tuesday (18 July) about the “adequacy” of the corporation’s governance arrangements following the furore.
Following allegations by the Sun newspaper that a presenter, later named as Edwards, paid a young person for explicit images, Mr Davie ordered a review to “assess how some complaints are red flagged up the organisation”.
The young person later said in a letter to BBC News, via lawyers, that nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the unnamed presenter.
No criminal offence was found to have been committed by Edwards, the Metropolitan Police said.
Vicky Flind, Edwards’s wife, named him as the presenter in a statement and added that her husband is receiving in-patient hospital care and suffering “serious mental health issues”.
Former BBC journalist Jon Sopel, who said he talked to Edwards following the allegations, told Good Morning Britain: “He was very angry, I think felt very let down by what happened in the Sun, furious with their coverage, not overly impressed with the BBC’s coverage either.”
Today (18 July), the committee will raise issues including “in light of recent events, what concerns have been raised about the adequacy of the BBC’s governance arrangements and how it is addressing these”.
