BBC Savile Sex Scandal Reviews Cost £4.9m

Three reviews set up by the BBC in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal have so far cost licence fee payers almost £5m, the corporation's annual report has revealed.

The largest of the inquiries - the Pollard Review - which looked into whether the trust's management team failed in its handling of a dropped Newsnight investigation into the Savile allegations, cost £2.8m (inclusive of tax and VAT).

The cost of the review by the former head of Sky News included £101,000 to cover the "legal and related costs" of Helen Boaden, who was heavily criticised in the report.

The then head of BBC News was among the senior executives who were criticised for failing to act while the corporation was plunged into chaos by the scandal.

Total legal costs for witnesses came to £391,120.92 while Mr Pollard was paid a fee of £81,600.

Costs for that review and subsequent investigations into respect at work and the BBC's culture and practices while Savile worked there, came to £4.9m to the end of March.

But the eventual public bill will be even higher because the review into culture and practices is still being conducted by former High Court judge Dame Janet Smith and will be published later this year.

An extra strand of her investigation is under way in light of the conduct of former BBC presenter Stuart Hall , who was recently jailed after admitting the indecent assault of girls as young as nine.

Writing in the report, BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten quoted Charles Dickens to compare the success of the Olympics coverage with the Savile scandal saying, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".

He said the revelations about the scrapped Newsnight investigation and subsequent departure of director-general George Entwistle were "low points".

He said: "The BBC seriously let down both itself and licence fee payers."

The BBC initially said the Pollard Review would cost £2m but Tim Davie, who stood in as director-general following Mr Entwistle's departure after just 54 days in the top job, said that had been an "estimate".

New director-general Tony Hall defended the cost to licence fee payers of the reviews, telling Sky News it was "absolutely proper" to "examine what lessons there are to be learned from the mistakes made nearly a year ago".

He said the results of the inquiries - into events that took place before he took up his role - had been "very helpful" to him so far.

Lord Hall said he wanted to change the culture at the BBC and called for "greater personal accountability" and a simpler corporation.

In a letter to Lord Patten he said he had been "struck by the complexity of the organisation and inhibiting effect that has on creativity".

He added that he was "personally leading a major piece of work to look at how we can simplify our organisation".

He also said he would be working closely with HR executive Lucy Adams, who was heavily criticised by a committee of MPs last week over hefty pay-offs to senior staff , and said he had full confidence in her.

Mr Entwistle was given a £450,000 pay-off despite his short tenure and widespread criticism of his handling of the Savile affair.

The annual report and accounts also reveal that the BBC made £580m of savings during 2012/13.

Staffing levels across the corporation were reduced from 21,940 to 21,282 over the year, while senior management teams have been cut by 31% since 2009.