Peers to grill BBC bosses on corporation’s future and Edwards furore

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

BBC bosses are to be questioned in Parliament on the corporation’s future and its handling of the Huw Edwards furore.

Director-general Tim Davie and chairman Samir Shah will be questioned on the broadcaster’s funding model, amid a decline in licence fee payers, and their future strategy when they sit before the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee next Tuesday.

The session will begin with their handling of the Edwards’ case after the corporation admitted it was informed that the former broadcaster had been arrested in November but continued to employ him for around five months until he left on medical advice.

Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in July to charges of having indecent images of children, with seven of the 41 being of the most serious type, after he resigned from the corporation in April.

It comes after the BBC said it has “authorised the Executive to seek the return of salary paid to Mr Edwards from the time he was arrested in November last year”, an estimated £200,000.

In the session, the BBC executives will face questions on the “corporation’s approach to addressing allegations of wrongdoing involving high-profile presenters and its effect on the confidence of licence fee payers”.

The broadcaster’s plans for their archive footage which features Edwards will also be discussed.

During his four decades at the corporation, Edwards was among the broadcasting teams leading coverage of historic events including the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and most recently the coronation of the King in May 2023.

Edwards also announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC in September 2022.

The committee has said the issues form part of their ongoing examination into “the extent to which the BBC is upholding public confidence in an age of expanding choice and declining audience engagement”.

The session will later turn to areas within the Lords committee’s 2022 report on BBC future funding.

Alongside issues such as the licence fee, the BBC bosses will discuss how it plans to “improve its offer to audiences who are turning away, such as working-class viewers”.

The BBC’s coverage of the recent general election and issues relating to local news will also be explored.