BBC pulls plug on all phone-in quizzes

The BBC has suspended all phone-in and interactive competitions after discovering a host of editorial breaches involving shows such as Children In Need.

The series of "significant failures of control and compliance" was unearthed during an internal probe which found that shows including Comic Relief and Sport Relief, as well as others, had breached the corporation's editorial standards.

Fake winners were put on air during phone-in competitions, the inquiry found. Last month it was revealed that Blue Peter had been guilty of "deception" when it faked a competition winner. Watchdog Ofcom fined the BBC £50,000.

Almost 40,000 children had called the show's premium-rate phone line on November 27 last year in a quiz to win a toy after being asked to identify EastEnders character Bradley Branning from a picture of his feet and an accompanying clue.

A technical glitch meant no winning entrant could be selected so a member of the production team asked a girl visiting the studio with a parent to pose as a winning caller. She was given the correct answer and put on air.

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said resignations had not been discussed at the meeting with the BBC Trust and that it was time to focus instead on what had gone wrong.

"What we are doing is seeking to understand what happened and why it happened," he said.

"There is a range of sanctions available which can involve dismissal. Deceiving the public is utterly unacceptable, it is a gross breach of discipline. It will lead in most cases to immediate dismissal."

But he said he had not received any offers of resignation from any BBC employees nor "have I sought them".

Mr Thompson said he and the management team would be judged on their success over the forthcoming months in regaining the public's trust in the Corporation.

"We have had a rude awakening. It is clearly a grave matter but the right thing to do is to take steps to make sure we close these gaps."

He insisted the mistakes were not made out of personal gain or intended malice, but mainly when a technical hitch went wrong and a problem had to be glossed over.

"A group of people have taken it upon themselves to carry out this kind of white lie. It is not acceptable, it is better to come clean - the public will understand.

"One of the ironies is trusting the public is one of the ways to get the public to trust us."

He said all the programmes would be reviewed to see if people needed to be refunded for calling defunct phone lines but added that many of the competitions were complete spoofs.

Ofcom has called for more accountability, saying there is an apparent lack of transparency between telecoms operators, producers and broadcasters.

It said some broadcasters are in denial about their responsibility to their viewers and must develop a fairer and more competitive system.

The damning inquiry has been looking into more than 20 alleged phone-in quiz scandals - including the BBC, GMTV and Five - since March.

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