BBC Trust

The Pollard Review, conducted by former Head of Sky News Nick Pollard, was published on 19 December 2012.  It was an inquiry into a dropped Newsnight investigation in 2011 which featured allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile. 

The review was commissioned by the BBC Executive Board on 12 October 2012, and on 16 October 2012 it was announced that Nick Pollard had been appointed to lead the review.

The 'Review Procedures' were published by the Trust on 1 November 2012, and the report itself was published on 19 December 2012. 

The review sought to establish whether there were any failings in the BBC’s management of the relevant investigation, including the broadcast of tribute programmes on Jimmy Savile on the BBC. The BBC Trust also subsequently asked Nick Pollard to investigate how inaccuracies appeared in a blog about the investigation and how the corrections to that blog were handled.

Mr Pollard’s main conclusion was that, while the decision to drop the original investigation was flawed and the way it was taken was wrong, it was done in good faith and he did not believe there was any inappropriate managerial pressure or consideration that influenced the Editor of Newsnight not to run the Savile story. The report also highlighted broader issues about management culture at the BBC.

In response to Mr Pollard’s findings, the BBC Executive set out a number of immediate and longer-term actions. Immediate actions included: the replacement of the senior editorial team at Newsnight; the introduction of regular reports from the Director-General to the BBC Management board about the highest risk programmes and investigations across the BBC; strengthened guidance for BBC journalists on how and when material should be handed to the police; and a review of the role of the BBC Editors’ Blog. Longer-term, the BBC Executive committed to developing a plan to address wider questions about how the BBC works, communicates and make decisions; and to consider the roles and responsibilities at the top of the BBC to ensure effective oversight of editorial standards.

Appendices and transcripts

On 22 February 2013 the BBC Executive published appendices and transcripts from Mr Pollard’s review.

Supplementary material

Following publication of the report, Nick Pollard had a conversation with a journalist regarding some information that he had not included in his report. It was suggested that this conversation raised questions about the validity of the conclusions of his review. Nick Pollard confirmed to the Trustees in an account on 10 December 2013 (PDF link) that he stood by the conclusions of his report. The Trustees considered this and were satisfied that he properly weighed all the evidence and that the conclusions of his report were unaffected. You can read the full statement published on 11 December 2013.

Costs of the review

On 16 July 2013 the BBC Executive published the costs of the Pollard Review and a breakdown of these costs, up to and including 31 March 2013.  As at 31 March 2013 the total cost of the Pollard Review was £2.4 million excluding VAT, including costs to the Trust of £360,910 for external legal support.

On 27 February 2014 the Trust published updated costs for the Pollard Review, for external legal support associated with the Trust’s investigation of questions raised by a Member of Parliament into the review’s conclusions, and the Trust’s subsequent consideration of the recorded conversation between Mr Pollard and a journalist.  The additional costs were £12,360 excluding VAT.  The updated cost to the Trust of the Pollard Review was therefore £373,270 excluding VAT.

Minutes of relevant meetings

Below can be found links to relevant meetings where the Pollard Review and associated matters were discussed by Trustees. Other minutes of Trust meetings can be found here.