The BBC has issued an apology to the family of the teenager involved in the scandal around the newsreader Huw Edwards.
It faced allegations that it did not respond quickly enough to complaints of inappropriate behaviour made against the broadcaster, who fronted the BBC News at Ten, and led coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth.
The intial complaint was made to the BBC on 18 May 2023, but it took until 6 July to reach the BBC’s Corporate Press Office and executive management.
Following the complaint, the BBC commissioned a review of the effectiveness of its non-editorial complaints policies and processes. The BBC has accepted enhancements to its processes in full and says several of them have already been put in place.
“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,” said Leigh Tavaziva, BBC Group Chief Operating Officer.
“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.”
Speculation over the identity of the presenter, led Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, to confirm he was the man at the centre of the allegations. She said he was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and was “receiving in-patient hospital care”.
A separate investigation is thought to be underway into whether Edwards brought the BBC into disrepute.
Edwards was last seen on 5 July, covering the King’s visit to Scotland.
