BBC Pollard Review: BBC accused of multiple failings but executives keep jobs Tim Davie, the acting director-general, insisted the moves were a "fair and proportionate" response to the criticisms levelled in Nick Pollard's report into the Savile affair and Ken MacQuarrie's report into McAlpine. The BBC's decision to drop a Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile's child abuse was said to be "flawed" today but was not taken to avoid a clash with planned tribute programmes to the presenter. Nick Pollard, a former head of Sky News who carried out a two-month investigation into the affair, said in his review that the most troubling aspect of the scandal was not the decision to drop the investigation but "the complete inability to deal with the events that followed." The report was highly critical of Stephen Mitchell, the BBC's deputy head of news, who decided to remove the Savile investigation from a list of projects that were considered risky enough to be passed on to the most senior managers. Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, defended the individuals who had lost their jobs, warning that management reform was not something that that could be solved overnight. He admitted that the BBC should have set up the inquires faster but said they were acting on the advice of the police. "Our response to this searingly honest report is right but obviously it's going to take a long time to change the management culture and I think that Tony Hall is the right person to lead that," he said. There is always a call for heads on spikes - a director general has gone, a deputy head of news has gone - other people have lost jobs, we are going to see a complete clean out of Newsnight senior executives. It's unfair to think that by identifying two or three or four people we will clean everything up. We have a much more extensive job to do.""These are not hapless people. Lord Patten said the BBC was facing up to its mistakes in what had been a "rigorous and expensive process" and called on others caught up in the Savile scandal, such as the NHS, to do the same. He acknowledged that questions would be asked of the BBC Trust but said it was not responsible for editorial or operational decisions.