Speeches by Irons.

“The Serota report, which you worked on, referred consistently to a “culture of defensiveness” at the BBC. Do you think that has changed since then?”

“Caroline, do you have anything to say about the defensiveness in the BBC?”

“Yes. Publicly, we did not hear anything about it until the leak. Why was there such a delay in giving a robust response to it?”

“Okay.”

“Sir Robbie, you are clearly a man of very strong political convictions and have held multiple posts both at the BBC and then over at No. 10 over the last couple of decades. How have you managed to keep these roles separate and manage your own bias, given that this is all about accusing the BBC of bias and accusing the …”

“There is a question of perception, isn’t there? How do you manage perception? You said it has been weaponised, but I suppose it is difficult for people to separate those things.”

“Would we as a Committee be able to see that letter—privately, maybe?”

“Fair enough. How has the Serota review changed working practices and culture practically at the BBC? We keep coming back culture and transparency, but how has it actually changed anything?”

“How, then, did we reach the position we are in now, where you, Michael, felt compelled to write your memo? Is there an issue around transparency at the BBC? Is there an issue with just being transparent and honest when things go wrong?”

“Yes.”

“Given that there was an investigation into the insurance piece, action was taken and the BBC acknowledged there was an issue, how much was that a systemic issue? Or was it just a cock-up? It is conspiracy versus cock-up. Is it just that a mistake was made, the BBC investigated and it was corrected? Given that action wa…”

“Thanks very much for coming in today. Caroline, you have mentioned the Serota review and talked about the depth of work involved. I want to pick up on a couple of points. The review found a culture of defensiveness at the BBC, especially around admitting mistakes, as the Chair mentioned. That was in 2021; have things i…”

“You mentioned Tim Davie’s robust and very quick response to Glastonbury. Do you have any idea why the robust and quick response did not come this time around?”

“Michael, do you have a view as to why there was a bit more of a delay when it came to a robust response?”

“Caroline has just outlined that better training has been put in place for data analysis, because anyone can look at a spreadsheet and come up with an answer for anything. She has outlined the actions that were taken off the back of that clear failure. Where that has happened, is that not the BBC behaving in the way it …”

“Would we as a Committee be able to see that letter—privately, maybe?”

“There are reports today, I believe in The i, about a second board member who was on the verge of quitting. There have also been reports of the role of the EGSC expanding and the creation of a new deputy director general role. Dr Shah, is not that a bit of an admission that perhaps your leadership in this needs to be lo…”

“But there are issues here, aren’t there? We are looking now at how this all works and it has taken quite some time to get there. That is why I asked the question.”

“Where do we go from here? What are the next steps for the board?”

“Can I clarify something? Dr Shah, you said that you were not involved in Sir Robbie coming on to the board, but, Sir Robbie, did you have any role in Dr Shah becoming chair? Sir Robbie Gibb indicated dissent.”