BBC Pauses Civil Service Secondment Scheme
BBC News reports on a significant change in their fact-checking process. The BBC has decided to pause its secondment of government statisticians to its fact-checking service, BBC Verify. This move comes after concerns raised by The Telegraph regarding potential breaches of impartiality rules.
Since 2018, the BBC has offered six-month secondment opportunities for up to two civil servant statisticians to work for BBC News's head of statistics. A BBC spokesperson emphasized that these statisticians "never make editorial decisions," despite sometimes having their names associated with the BBC website for their work.
The decision to pause secondments and review the roles was prompted by The Telegraph's report, which cited job advertisements and blog posts suggesting that the statisticians were engaging in editorial tasks. The BBC clarified that while statisticians' work may be incorporated into journalism, they do not write copy.
The corporation also highlighted the adherence of seconded statisticians to the Civil Service Code of Practice for Statistics, which ensures objective presentation and use of data and statistics, free from political or commercial influence.