The key facts
- BBC is suspending six-month secondments for government statisticians, which have operated since 2018
- The decision followed a Telegraph report about a possible breach of impartiality rules
- The BBC says the statisticians never made editorial decisions and did not write copy
Programme suspension
The BBC said it is suspending the secondment of government statisticians at its BBC Verify fact-checking service and will review their role. Since 2018, the corporation has offered six-month secondments for a maximum of two civil servant statisticians in the BBC News statistics department. Those currently on secondment will not take part in publishing news or content while the review is under way; the current recruitment round has also been paused.
Trigger: The Telegraph report
The decision followed a Telegraph report which said embedded civil servants had carried out editorial tasks and raised the question of a possible breach of impartiality rules. According to The Telegraph, the advertisement for the 2027 secondment intake said the successful candidate should have the 'ability to influence decision-making by working with trust and proactively with clients to share knowledge and information'. A deleted blog post by one civil servant about his secondments contained a description of how the trainee wrote copy for the news website.
BBC response
A BBC spokesperson said: 'All BBC journalism and editorial decisions are made by BBC journalists and editors in accordance with BBC editorial guidelines, so the statisticians have never made editorial decisions.' He added that the BBC takes 'its independence and transparency extremely seriously, and we must ensure we meet the highest standards'. According to the spokesperson, although the statisticians' work was sometimes credited to them by name on the BBC website, 'they have never made editorial decisions'.
Dispute over copy
The BBC stated: 'While lines they write to explain statistics may be included in some form in articles or packages, they do not write copy. The blog post claiming copywriting is inaccurate, and we have asked for it to be corrected.' The corporation also noted that the secondees' contributions may be included in journalism scrutinising the current government, as with all political parties. According to the BBC, statisticians on secondment comply with the civil service Statistics Code of Practice, which requires presenting data objectively and not concealing or distorting it under the influence of political or commercial interests.
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