It’s ‘impossible to claw back Huw Edwards’ pension’, Tim Davie admits as BBC boss speaks out on presenter’s salary
TIM Davie has admitted it’s “impossible to claw back Huw Edwards’ pension” – as the BBC boss speaks out on the presenter’s salary.
In an interview with BBC News tonight, Davie addressed calls for Edwards to return part of his salary, and give up his pension.
Ex-BBC news anchor Edwards, 62, yesterday admitted being sent a string of child sex images – including sexual videos of a boy as young as seven.
Edwards received the pictures on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021.
The BBC was told in November that their star newsreader had been arrested over child sex images – but kept paying him for another five months.
Edwards, who had been suspended in relation to different allegations, remained employed on a full salary of nearly £480,000 until he quit the broadcaster on “medical advice” in April.
Davie told BBC News it would be “nigh on impossible” for the BBC to claw back Edwards’ pension.
He said: “No one likes to see this situation. But these are unfortunately the specifics of how it works.
“We can’t claw back the pension – it’s very difficult, nigh on impossible.
“I think when it comes to pay – again, legally challenging, but we’ll look at all options.”
Davie tonight confirmed the Beeb did know Huw had committed “serious” offences, but was not aware of the ages of the children involved.
He said: “We knew it was serious, we knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.”
BBC bosses were not aware of the ages of the children in the images, he added.
Davie said the BBC was “not sitting on anything that I think we need to share with the police, or is of a serious nature that would make me feel that we hadn’t followed up properly”.
He added: “I can categorically say that when it comes to the offences we’ve seen, which are truly horrendous, any evidence that is out there is not in the hands of the BBC.
“If I saw evidence of that, that is not a complicated decision.”
When the charges Huw Edwards was facing came to light earlier this week, Davie said: “We were very shocked. No-one knew about the specifics of what we heard over the last few days, which have been deeply disturbing.”
He also reiterated that the BBC did not make the potential charges public at the request of the police, adding the corporation also had to consider their duty of care.
“When it comes to the decision we made in November, we were obviously faced with a difficult decision, and we considered it very carefully,” Davie said.
“The police came to us and gave us information that they had arrested Mr Edwards.
“But they wanted to be assured of total confidence, and the reason they rung us at that point, it’s a technical process to ensure employees are protected and there’s no risk.”
He added: “Another factor at this point was very significant duty of care considerations.
“I think it was right for us to say we’d let the police do their business, and then when charges happen, we will act.”
It comes after Davie was hauled in by the Culture Secretary for an urgent explanation of the handling of the Huw Edwards scandal.
Lisa Nandy reportedly has serious concerns that the Corporation continued to pay the presenter’s massive salary even after becoming aware of his arrest last November.
She is understood to have summoned the Director General to get to the bottom of the matter before deciding on her next steps.