BBC Trust

At today’s Editorial Standards Committee (ESC), the Trust considered whether to take an appeal in relation to the BBC’s Creative Director, Alan Yentob, and his role as Chairman of Kids’ Company.

The Committee concluded that:

• They had seen no evidence that Mr Yentob’s external role as chairman of Kids Company meant that he was not also able to be the BBC’s Creative Director.
• Having listened to Newsnight, Today and World at One, and having been assured by the Director General that the integrity of BBC News output had been maintained, there was no evidence that the integrity of the output had been affected. They also noted that Mr Yentob was not in the management chain for BBC News and that the BBC had frequently led on breaking news about Kids Company.
• There had been wider questions about Mr Yentob’s behaviour in connection to the three programmes and whether there was any potential impact on the reputation of the BBC, but taking into account the Executive’s assurance that the programmes’ output had not been affected, and given Mr Yentob has now stepped down as the BBC’s Creative Director, it would not be proportionate, appropriate or cost effective to look further at these matters.

They therefore decided not to proceed with the appeal.

However the Trustees concluded that it was right to consider if there were lessons to be learnt from these events. To that end, they would ask the BBC’s Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, to report to the ESC on his conclusions on whether any changes should be made to the processes for managing conflicts affecting senior managers – including whether any additional rules should apply to those external activities that are permitted; and whether any more specific measures should apply when an external activity becomes the focus of news coverage. They expected to consider this report in early 2016. The Committee reserved the right to take further action if necessary following his report. 

The Trust's full consideration can be found below.