Ex-BBC boss Thompson to face MPs

Written By Unknown on Senin, 09 September 2013 | 15.36

8 September 2013 Last updated at 22:58 ET

Former BBC director general Mark Thompson will face MPs later, after accusing the trust which oversees the corporation of "fundamentally misleading" Parliament over pay-offs.

The BBC Trust says the claims are bizarre and has denied MPs were misled.

Mr Thompson is one of seven senior BBC figures being questioned over the size of severance deals at the corporation.

The BBC has been criticised for paying £25m to 150 outgoing senior executives.

This was £2m more than their contracts necessitated.

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten and the BBC head of human resources Lucy Adams, who last week said she made a mistake when she told MPs she did not know about an email about pay-offs to top executives, will also appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday.

BBC trustee Anthony Fry, former trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, trust director Nicholas Kroll and a former senior independent director, Marcus Agius, will also give evidence.

The hearing is a follow-up to a similar hearing in July which saw Lord Patten tell MPs he was "shocked and dismayed" by pay-offs totalling £25m to senior managers.

He said that if Mr Thompson was called before MPs, he would be "as interested as you are, why we didn't know".

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David Sillito Arts Correspondent


What's at stake here are reputations. Mark Thompson is said to be furious about the way the trust pointed the finger at him for allegedly leaving them in the dark over pay-offs. The man who is now chief executive of the New York Times wants to clear his name.

In response, the BBC Trust has called his comments "bizarre" and "unsubstantiated". It now has to prove that.

If it doesn't, two things are at stake. First the reputation of the chairman, Lord Patten. To be accused of sitting before MPs supporting a case that Mark Thompson says is "fundamentally misleading" is serious.

Secondly, the trust itself wants to prove it is up to the job of overseeing the BBC. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee have already castigated it for not doing more about pay-offs over the past six years.

With the debate over the renewal of the BBC's Charter not that far off, the Trust will certainly want to be seen to be "trustworthy".

The BBC has already accepted the pay-offs were wrong. The seven senior BBC executives, past and present, are today arguing over the issues of blame and responsibility.

The row has opened up a growing split between past and present BBC executives.

In a letter to MPs investigating the excessive pay-offs on Friday, Mr Thompson - who left the BBC last year and is now chief executive of the New York Times - said statements by Lord Patten were inaccurate and information was kept from the National Audit Office which carried out a report into the severance packages.

He also said he has emails which show that trust members approved the payments.

The 13,000-word document was prepared ahead of his appearance before MPs, where he will be expected to answer allegations made in July that he had not been open with the trust about pay-offs to two senior executives.

The document included a briefing note prepared for Lord Patten on defending the size of the payments.

Another attachment challenged the BBC head of human resources Lucy Adams' claim that she did not know of an email explaining the pay-offs, and appeared to show that she helped to compose it.

Ms Adams said she made a mistake in her evidence to MPs in July over £25m paid to departing BBC executives before Mr Thompson's claims were made.

The BBC Trust rejects the suggestion that Lord Patten and Anthony Fry misled the PAC.

It has also denied Mark Thompson's claim it approved a £949,000 severance package for his deputy Mark Byford.

Speaking on Friday morning, Lord Patten said he had "no concerns at all" about the statements made by Mr Thompson and was "looking forward" to appearing before the committee.

The PAC meeting in July followed the publication of a report in which the National Audit Office criticised the corporation, saying the scale of the payments risked public trust.


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