BBC boss to be quizzed on HSBC role
BBC Trust boss Rona Fairhead will be questioned about her work at HSBC after she was summoned before a UK parliamentary select committee.
Ms Fairhead, who took over at the trust last year after former UK cabinet minister Lord Patten stood down, has been a member of the bank’s board since 2004.
She will give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee alongside the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver on Monday after allegations emerged that HSBC’s Swiss branch helped wealthy customers dodge tax.
At a hearing last week, the committee’s chairman Margaret Hodge asked BBC trustee Nicholas Prettejohn what “due diligence” was being carried out, saying: “There are clearly question marks arising about her role.”
Mr Prettejohn told her the BBC was “not doing anything specifically ourselves” but said it would take into account any other investigations that were carried out.
BBC director general Tony Hall refused to comment on the HSBC allegations, but said he thought Ms Fairhead was “doing a very effective job as chair”.
The two men – and the BBC’s managing director of finance and operations Anne Bulford – were giving evidence to the parliamentary committee on a separate investigation into the BBC estate.
