Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, has led the scrutiny of the BBC’s top leadership as Chair of a cross-party group of MPs.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee grilled Tim Davie, Director General, and Dr Samir Shah, Chair of the BBC, over recent scandals which have raised serious concerns around the workplace culture at the BBC.
After a bruising hearing in March where Caroline raised the failure of the BBC to make appropriate editorial decisions when producing the documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” and the Committee demanded improvements following allegations against the TV chef Gregg Wallace, the session was an opportunity for Mr Davie and Dr Shah to demonstrate that lessons had been learnt.
However in the past 6 months the BBC has been hit by further scandals such as the live airing of antisemitic chants at Glastonbury. An independent investigation into Gregg Wallace’s behaviour which upheld 45 allegations against him was also published.
Mr Davie and Dr Shah made a passionate case that the BBC was resetting its workplace culture, with the Chair saying that, in terms of future scandals, “no one is irreplaceable”.
The Government is due to issue a Green paper where it will set out its proposals for the license fee in the coming months.
Launching the session, Caroline said:
“We last had you both in front of us in March of this year, when we spent much of the session talking about your handling of the BBC’s coverage of Gaza and the Middle East, your approach to impartiality, and the need for some urgent improvements in the workplace culture of the BBC.
“We heard a lot of the right words from you both back in March about the changes that needed to happen, but I think we can all agree that it has been a fairly bumpy summer. By July, that sense of crisis that seemed to hang over the BBC was growing again, with the findings of the review into the documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”, the results of the Lewis Silkin investigation into Gregg Wallace and Banijay, and the BBC’s livestreaming of Glastonbury.
“So, today, as well as warm words, what we really want to hear from you is clarity and decisiveness about the action and the accountability that the BBC is going to deliver moving forward.
“Mr Davie, I have barely had a conversation with anybody about the BBC this summer, whether with the media or with my constituents, that did not start with me being asked, “Should Tim Davie resign?” How much has that been on your mind this summer?”
Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, replied:
“Inevitably, this job—I have said this before—is not for the fainthearted. What has been in my mind this summer has been dealing with the issues; delivering the quality broadcasting we deliver day in, day out; getting a grip on some of the issues that you have referred to in your opening remarks, which are serious and which we have had to deal with; and ensuring that the BBC, to your point, is taking the right actions. I have been totally focused on that. For what it is worth, while dealing with those issues, I have also never been more passionate about public service broadcasting, our need for it, and the need for the BBC.
“Clearly, the issues you refer to are very serious—they need management, they need grip—but I have also been focused on ensuring, day in, day out, that we deliver, for audiences paying the licence fee, great value from the BBC. That is what I have been focused on.”
ENDS
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You can read the transcript of the hearing here: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/16413/html/.
You can watch the Committee session here: www.parliamentlive.tv/event/index/99ccac55-f34d-4ae5-b5e1-5f7f035443f9?in=10:00:54.
