BBC apologises over handling of Huw Edwards complaint

The BBC has apologised for the way it handled a complaint about the presenter Huw Edwards.

Allegations about his behaviour were made in May 2023 but did not reach senior managers until 6 July.

The corporation said the complaint was not "escalated quickly enough" and that it has now changed its processes.

An independent report by Deloitte into the BBC's complaints handling procedure said a complaint was made on the 18 May.

When the contact was first made by the family of a young person at a BBC location in Cardiff, the complainant was correctly signposted to the BBC's audience services as the first port of call for their complaint.

Once the complainant had contacted audience services on 19 May, the complaint was escalated to the corporate investigations team the same day.

But the case was then not logged on the BBC's case management system and there was no "documented process" for following up the allegations.

This meant that there "was no opportunity for wider visibility of the case within the BBC."

The BBC said it had already made improvements to its non-editorial complaints process but had further plans for "greater consistency" across teams... regardless of the route by which the complaints are received and reviewed."

It also said it would make better use of technology to ensure there is "a complete picture of all cases".

The report also stated some employees they spoke to said they would feel "nervous about raising a complaint" with the BBC, particularly if it was about a more senior colleague or a high profile figure.

It said: "These employees said they have lower levels of confidence in how robustly the complaint will be handled if it is a grievance relating to another member of staff or talent, particularly where there is an actual or perceived power discrepancy between the complainant and the subject of the complaint."

The Sun newspaper had published claims about a BBC News presenter paying a young person for sexual explicit photos.

Representatives from the BBC met detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command, but there was "no investigation at this time".

Detectives later decided there was no information to indicate that a criminal offence had been committed.

On 13 July, Huw Edwards' wife Vicky Flind, who named her husband as the man at the centre of the allegations, said he would respond when he was well enough.

BBC director general Tim Davie also sent an email to staff saying an internal investigation would continue now police were no longer involved.