BBC boss Tim Davie says it was “very clear” Scott Mills had to be fired
Outgoing BBC director general Tim Davie has deemed the firing of former Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills “a real shock” despite admitting that it had become “very clear” he had to go.
Mills, who hosted the Breakfast Show on Radio 2, was fired by the broadcaster on March 27th. The incident was made public on March 30th.
It soon emerged that Mills was at the centre of a Metropolitan Police investigation in 2016 in relation to alleged historical sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
The case was dropped in 2019, and Mills was never charged.
Now, when asked about Mills during an all-staff call, Davie reassured BBC staff that the organisation was “trying to act fairly”.
As per the BBC, he went on, “It was new information quite recently that we received that made it very clear about the decision we had to make.”
Davie admitted that the news, which shocked the nation, was also a “real shock to the organisation”.
Addressing the masses, Davie went on, “When something happens where I think there’s a lot of grief, there’s a lot of shock, I think all I would say is we’re trying to act as the leadership with kindness.”
On April 1st, the organisation released a statement that confirmed, “In recent weeks, we obtained new information relating to Scott, and we spoke directly with him. As a result, the BBC acted decisively in line with our culture and values and terminated his contracts on Friday, 27 March.”
Referring back to the official statement, Davie added, “I think people need to look at the statement; we made [it] as clear as we can. We obviously have to be sensitive when you’ve got personal information, and we work carefully through it, but the statement is really clear.”
In light of this, Davie reassured the organisation that their culture is shifting. “I do think we’ve reached a point where people behaving badly now, you can see we’re not going to tolerate it,” he insisted.
Davie’s comments come on his way out of the top seat; he has spent almost six years in the head role and will now be replaced by Rhodri Talfan Davies for the next six weeks. Following this, former Google executive Matt Brittin will take over the role permanently from May 18th.
On April 1st, Mills broke his silence on the firing, confirming that “an allegation was made against me in 2016 of a historic sexual offence which was the subject of a police investigation in which I fully cooperated and responded to in 2018.”
The household name also shared that he will not be commenting on the matter again, after thanking those who have reached out ot him “with kindness”.
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