BBC payments: Emails 'indicate Trust knew'

The BBC director general, Tony Hall, and the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, expressed dismay to a select committee yesterday about the scale of severance payments to BBC managers agreed under the regime of the former director general Mark Thomson, Tony Hall saying the corporation had "lost the plot".

Lord Patten said he was not told some payoffs went beyond contractual terms. He told the committee he would "be as interested as you are why we didn't know".

Steve Hewlett, presenter of the Media Show on Radio 4 told the Today programme's James Naughtie that there were "indications from emails" that the BBC Trust "corporately knew" about the payments.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 11 July 2013.