Deloitte to review BBC internal processes after Huw Edwards scandal
A top Deloitte partner has been drafted in to help the BBC review its internal processes following the Huw Edwards scandal.
The Big Four firm will be assisting the broadcaster as it evaluates how complaints are assessed in the wake of the crisis.
Dame Elan Closs Stephens, acting BBC chairwoman, told a House of Lords committee that Simon Cuerden, a forensic partner at Deloitte, and senior independent director at the BBC, Sir Nick Serota, will be leading the broadcaster’s review into its complaints processes.
“The terms of reference will be in front of the full board this coming Thursday, in two days time,” she said. “They will be published in due course and the inquiry will get under way.”
Edwards’ wife Vicky Flind confirmed the news presenter’s identity last week and said he had been hospitalised for mental health treatment following the row.
Speaking to the Lords Communications and Digital Committee, Elan also said there was “huge pressure” on the corporation’s board to name Edwards as the BBC presenter.
“We had a duty to act with some calm and rationality in the face of lack of rationality and lack of calm,” she added.
“There was a huge pressure to disclose the name of somebody to whom we had a duty of care, and privacy, in addition to the family and young man concerned in this maelstrom.”
BBC director general Tim Davie also confirmed to the committee that the BBC has been in touch with the complainant since the allegations were published in The Sun.
He said: “Since that weekend we have been in touch with the complainant and we want to be engaged and appropriately listen and understand their concerns.”
Davie said he expects to report on the corporation’s investigation in the late autumn.