Ofcom decision on Blue Peter – BBC Trust statement

Date: 09.07.2007     Last updated: 23.09.2014 at 09.53
Category: Editorial standards
"The errors which occurred around the Blue Peter programme on 27 November last year were particularly serious as they resulted in children being misled to participate in a competition they had no chance of winning and in a child in the studio being involved in deceiving the audience.



"Ofcom has been given powers by Parliament to fine the BBC if Ofcom finds that a breach of its Standards Code has been serious. Ofcom has exercised that power in this instance.

"The Trust expects BBC management to continue to demonstrate a commitment to learning from these breaches: we were pleased by the management's swift response when the errors came to light and its frank and clear assessment of what went wrong. The culture of the BBC must be such that any proposal to mislead audiences is instantly dismissed as wholly inappropriate.

"Ronald Neil has been commissioned by the Trust to carry out a longer term policy review into how and when the BBC uses premium rate services within programmes which is due to report by the end of the year."