BBC issues apology to family at centre of Huw Edwards scandal
The BBC has apologised for the handling of a complaint about news presenter Huw Edwards.
This comes following a scandal surrounding the broadcaster that came to light in 2023, with the BBC facing accusations it didn’t respond quickly enough to the complaints.
The News at Ten presenter was accused of paying a young person thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photos.
Allegations about Edwards’ behaviour were first reported to the BBC in May 2023, but didn’t reach senior managers until seven weeks later.
In July 2023, the BBC commissioned a review of its non-editorial complaints policies and processes.
The independent report by Deloitte has now found there was a need for "greater consistency" in how complaints at the corporation are processed.
It also revealed the initial complaint about Edwards was not logged properly on the relevant case management system.
Reflecting on the newly published review, Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC Group Chief Operating Officer, said: "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.
"Where the review identifies process improvements, we accept those in full, and we are delivering on an action plan with a number of enhancements already in place.
"The report identifies specific process shortcomings in the presenter case. The initial complaint in this case was not escalated quickly enough to senior management and we have apologised to the complainant for this."
Edwards is not directly named in the report, nor was he when the scandal first became public knowledge.
Initially, claims about an unnamed BBC News presenter paying a young person for sexual explicit photos were published by The Sun.
On July 13, Edwards' wife Vicky Flind confirmed her husband was the man at the centre of the allegations.
Releasing a statement at the time, she said Edwards would respond when he was well enough to do so.
At the time, the Met Police's Specialist Crime Command said it had found no evidence that a criminal offence had been committed.
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, organisations who can offer support include the NHS, Samaritans on 116 123 or Mind on 0300 123 3393. Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov.
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