BBC: boss admits incident is ‘clearly damaging’ but defends delay in putting allegations to presenter – live

Latest updates: Tim Davie says gap between initial contact and approaching presenter was reasonable but there may be some learnings' from case

At the BBC annual report press briefing, director general Tim Davie made a statement addressing the unfolding situation concerning the allegations against the BBC presenter.

He said:

This is clearly a complex and difficult situation where we need to manage a number of factors - properly responding to serious allegations, sensitively managing duty of care issues, appropriately respecting the privacy of individuals and justified public interest.

We do believe we are navigating these responsibly and judicially but we recognise it's not easy to do so.

As a result of this the BBC has been asked to pause its own investigation into the allegations while they scope future work. We will pass any material that we have to them.

We know that questions have been asked how this case was initially managed and the timeline of events, so today we have published an update that sets out key dates and further detail.