BBC pauses civil service secondment scheme
Summary
The BBC will pause its program that temporarily places government statisticians in its fact-checking team, BBC Verify, and review their roles. This follows concerns that some civil servants on secondment may have taken part in editorial work, which raised questions about the BBC’s impartiality rules.Key Facts
- Since 2018, the BBC has had a scheme for up to two government statisticians to work with its news statistics team for six months.
- The BBC says statisticians do not make editorial decisions and only provide statistical advice.
- Current statisticians on secondment will not be involved in news during the review period.
- The BBC paused new recruitment for these roles while reviewing their function.
- A report suggested these civil servants had influenced editorial content, challenging impartiality rules.
- A job ad indicated the seconded statisticians might influence decision making and work closely with customers.
- A blog post by a civil servant wrongly claimed they wrote news copy; the BBC corrected this.
- The statisticians follow government rules to present data fairly and without political bias.
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