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| BBC director general Tony Hall: size of payoffs 'not right' | BBC director general Tony Hall: size of payoffs 'not right' |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| New BBC director general Tony Hall has criticised the level of payoffs given to former corporation executives and said he will not receive a big-money handout if he fails in his new role. | New BBC director general Tony Hall has criticised the level of payoffs given to former corporation executives and said he will not receive a big-money handout if he fails in his new role. |
| Hall revealed he is reviewing the scale of payoffs given to senior BBC executives following criticism of the £450,000 given to his predecessor George Entwistle after just 54 days in the job and the nearly £1m handed out to its former deputy director general Mark Byford. | Hall revealed he is reviewing the scale of payoffs given to senior BBC executives following criticism of the £450,000 given to his predecessor George Entwistle after just 54 days in the job and the nearly £1m handed out to its former deputy director general Mark Byford. |
| Margaret Hodge, the chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, accused the corporation of "rewarding failure". | Margaret Hodge, the chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, accused the corporation of "rewarding failure". |
| Hall said: "I think the size of the payoffs has not been right. Of course it's not been right. | Hall said: "I think the size of the payoffs has not been right. Of course it's not been right. |
| "I will not have a payoff if I am found wanting in all sorts of ways – I can tell you that," Hall told John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday. | "I will not have a payoff if I am found wanting in all sorts of ways – I can tell you that," Hall told John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday. |
| "This is a serious issue here. I am looking at payoffs, I will have something to say about payoffs in the next couple of weeks and the scale of those payoffs." | "This is a serious issue here. I am looking at payoffs, I will have something to say about payoffs in the next couple of weeks and the scale of those payoffs." |
| Hall declined to say whether he thought the BBC needed more money in its next licence fee settlement, although he said he doubted that it would need less. | Hall declined to say whether he thought the BBC needed more money in its next licence fee settlement, although he said he doubted that it would need less. |
| Hall – the former chief executive of the Royal Opera House who earns £450,000 in his new role – said the total bill for senior BBC management had fallen by around a third and indicated that it would not be increasing again under his watch. | Hall – the former chief executive of the Royal Opera House who earns £450,000 in his new role – said the total bill for senior BBC management had fallen by around a third and indicated that it would not be increasing again under his watch. |
| "We have got to look at the way we spend all our money, on managers, on programmes, everything, as if we were spending our own personal income. | "We have got to look at the way we spend all our money, on managers, on programmes, everything, as if we were spending our own personal income. |
| "At a time when every single family is feeling hard up, is feeling the pinch, we have got to be able to justify what we spend to people who are paying for us, if it's about payoffs or salaries." | "At a time when every single family is feeling hard up, is feeling the pinch, we have got to be able to justify what we spend to people who are paying for us, if it's about payoffs or salaries." |
| He added: "Senior salaries I know has been a very big issue and a lot of work has been done on that. The senior salaries bill has come down by about a third. It will not grow under me – I can tell you that much. I shall be looking for ways of simplifying the organisation and responding to things I hear from both outsiders and insiders." | He added: "Senior salaries I know has been a very big issue and a lot of work has been done on that. The senior salaries bill has come down by about a third. It will not grow under me – I can tell you that much. I shall be looking for ways of simplifying the organisation and responding to things I hear from both outsiders and insiders." |
| Hall's interview with Humphrys had special poignancy because it was the veteran Today presenter's interview with Entwistle that effectively sealed the former director general's fate in November last year. | Hall's interview with Humphrys had special poignancy because it was the veteran Today presenter's interview with Entwistle that effectively sealed the former director general's fate in November last year. |
| Humphrys alluded to the former DG and his ill-fated reign when he suggested to Hall at the end of the interview: "We will talk to you again in 54 days' time if you are still here … 55." "Make it 56," replied Hall. | Humphrys alluded to the former DG and his ill-fated reign when he suggested to Hall at the end of the interview: "We will talk to you again in 54 days' time if you are still here … 55." "Make it 56," replied Hall. |
| Asked whether the BBC needed more money to operate in the future, Hall said: "At the moment it would not be right to reopen any licence fee negotiations as some people have suggested. This country is going through a very tough time, householders are going through a tough time. | |
| "What I am excited about is talking to the staff, talking to people outside who care passionately about the BBC. What I want to do, talking to them, is work out what the future of the BBC looks like in 2022. When I have done that I can then tell you whether the money we have got is too much or too little. I doubt it will be that." | |
| Hall added: "My own belief is there is a more important role for the BBC going forward than there has been even in the past. | |
| "I am not going to make a rash statement that says 'yes, we need more money' or 'no, we don't need more money', until I have really had time to think about it." | |
| Hall said the BBC had learned the lessons of the Pollard report into the Savile crisis and was implementing its recommendations. | |
| But Humphrys challenged him over the report, saying people had "not been sacked" with "most shuffled to other jobs". Apart from Entwistle, the only other executive to leave the corporation was deputy director of news, Stephen Mitchell, who retired after being criticised in the Pollard report. | |
| Hall said: "I wouldn't be here if the Savile crisis had been handled differently. The person at the top of the organisation took the rap for it and I am here now. Likewise there is now a new person running the daily news programmes in the news division [former Today editor Ceri Thomas]. | |
| "You don't have a new director of news [vacated by Helen Boaden, who moved to the new role of director of radio] and that is at the top of my in-tray. My virtual in-tray, I don't actually have an in-tray in my office, for this month." | |
| Hall also revealed that the BBC had still not interviewed for the vacant editor of Newsnight role previously filled by Peter Rippon. He said they would be interviewing "shortly". | |
| Challenged by Humphrys that a lot of people criticised in the Pollard report were still at the BBC, Hall said: "The person who was head of news programmes [Mitchell] has left the BBC and other people have been found other jobs. I don't say that's particularly good for them. It's not." | |
| One of Hall's watchwords appears to be "team" – which he used several times in interviews in his first day in the job on Tuesday, and did so again on Today. | |
| "Above all I want to build a sense of a team across the BBC, to really build on the BBC's strengths. When this organisation works together it works brilliantly." | |
| On the circumstances of his appointment, chosen by BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten after Entwistle's sudden departure, Hall said: "I was invited to come and have a conversation with Lord Patten. I thought about it very hard – I was immensely happy in my job at the Royal Opera House which I have to say is one of the most wonderful jobs in the world – and he said 'I want you to come here and run the BBC'. | |
| "It wasn't a very matey conversation, no, it was a perfectly businesslike proper conversation. The reason I am here, I had a very good life indeed at the Royal Opera House, the reason I am here is because I care passionately about the BBC." | |
| Quizzed on the unusual position of having two lords running the BBC, Hall replied: "I am also Tony Hall and I am very happy to be." | |
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