Minister calls for Huw Edwards to hand back salary

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has called on Huw Edwards to hand back the salary he earned from the BBC after being arrested on child abuse image charges.

The BBC continued to employ Edwards, formerly its most high-profile newsreader, for five months after he was arrested on three counts of making indecent images of children, during which time he was paid £200,000.

"I think he ought to return his salary," Ms Nandy told Sky News.

"I think having been arrested on such serious charges all the way back in November, to continue to receive that salary all the way through until he resigned is wrong and it's not a good use of taxpayers' money."

She added: "I think most people in the country will agree with that but whether he does that or not is up to him."

Ms Nandy's comments came after she had talks with the BBC's director general Tim Davie about the corporation's handling of the episode, including the issue of Edwards' pay.

Ms Nandy told BBC News: "We had a very robust and frank discussion about the circumstances around the case, and some of the decisions that have been made during that case and since.

"Obviously I am particularly concerned to make sure that people have confidence in the BBC."

She said Mr Davie had "made a good start" in being "as open and transparent as possible" about what the BBC knew and why he made the decisions he did.

She added: "My concern is to make sure warning signs are caught, complaints are acted on, public money used well, and to make sure as far as humanly possible, we don’t have a repeat of this situation in the future."

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Ms Nandy said: "There are questions, though, that many people have asked about whistleblowers for example."

She added that there were also "questions about the contractual arrangements that the BBC has and whether it's appropriate if people are suspended, particularly once they've been arrested, to continue to receive not just full pay but also to see an uplift in that pay".

Edwards received between £475,000-£479,999 between April 2023 and April 2024, an increase of £40,000 on the previous year. Mr Davie said the pay rise dated from before any allegations.

Edwards was initially suspended by the BBC in July 2023 following allegations in the Sun newspaper.

He was then arrested in November on unrelated charges of making indecent images of children, but the arrest wasn't made public at the time.

He resigned this April, which the BBC said at the time was on "medical advice".

Edwards was charged this June, but news of the charge was only revealed this week.

On Thursday, Conservative former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale told the BBC's Newsnight there was "an impression that the BBC has not sought to be as transparent as they should be" over the whole matter.

"I think we need to know much more about why it was came to the conclusion that he [Edwards] should go on receiving his salary, that he should be allowed to resign rather than be sacked, and why the BBC knew about his arrest, and yet we only discover it eight months later," Mr Whittingdale said.

The Metropolitan Police told senior BBC managers about the arrest in "strict confidence" in November.

Asked how much he was told at the time, Mr Davie 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.

Asked why Edwards could not have been sacked at the time of his arrest, Mr Davie replied: "Because the police came to us and said they need to do their work in total confidence, [and said], 'please keep this confidential'."

Edwards had not been charged at that point and it was still possible he would be cleared, Mr Davie noted.

"We thought long and hard about this. This wasn’t a kneejerk decision. When you think about this in terms of precedent, people do get arrested, and then we've had situations where [there are] no charges, and there's nothing there to be followed up on."

The BBC has said Edwards would have been dismissed had he been charged while still employed.

Mr Davie said the corporation also had to consider its duty of care to the former News at Ten presenter.

The director general also said it would be "legally challenging" for the BBC to recover any of the pay, but he would "look at all options".

It would be "nigh on impossible" for the BBC to claw back his pension, he told the BBC's David Sillito.

In court on Wednesday, Edwards admitted having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by a convicted paedophile, Alex Williams, on WhatsApp.

They included seven category A images, the most serious classification - two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine.