BBC DG faces MPs over Savile Select "On" to auto refresh every 5 minutes: On Off This page will auto refresh every 5 minutes: On Off Welcome to a live blog of George Entwistle's appearance in front of the Commons culture, media and sport committee to answer questions about the Jimmy Savile scandal. Mr Entwistle will be answering questions about why Newsnight dropped an investigation, featuring witnesses who had not spoken to the police, into whether Jimmy Savile molested vulnerable young girls at a young offenders" home as well as broader questions about the entertainer's alleged abuse of minors on the BBC's property in the 1970s and 80s. 11.47: Farrelly accuses Entwistle of a "lack of curiosity" about the story of why Newsnight dropped the Savile investigation. An echo of what was said about News International's attitude to phone hacking. 11.44: Tim Shipman, deputy political editor of the Daily Mail, tweets: In summary, the top man at the world's leading news gathering organisation failed to ask any relevant questions at all about anything 11.43: Farrelly has pinned the DG to an important discovery: Entwistle did not make the proper journalistic inquiries about Rippon's blog on October 2 justifying the decision to drop the investigation 10 months earlier. Consequently, he himself relied, wrongly, on that blog to support Rippon's decision. 11.41: He accepts a very basic point by Paul Farrelly, Labour MP and former Observer journalist, that had it not been for ITV, which picked up the Newsnight investigation, that the public might not have known anything about the Savile scandal. 11.40: Entwistle says he was "surprised" that there was no further investigation at Newsnight after Rippon decided not to go ahead with it. Entwistle says a statement by BBC News that an internal inquiry would not look at this decision was a "misprision." 11.37 Tom Harper of the Evening Standard tweets: Enthwistle: "Mr Rippon's enthusiasm for the investigation was higher and then became lower." MP: "We want to know why." 11.35: As often happens in this sort of inquiry, MPs are becoming interested in how the chain of command works and whether the DG, who is also editor-in-chief of the BBC, should have been involved in knowing about this investigation, which could damage the BBC's reputation. The broad answer is: Maybe, but it didn't happen on this occasion. 11.31: Back to the correction the BBC had to publish yesterday: Entwistle essentially says he relied on an editor having full grip on the facts. Hard to see Rippon surviving being publicly criticised by his boss like this. At present, he has "stepped aside" from his job. 11.29: After detailed inquisition by Bradshaw, Damian Collins, a Tory member of the committee, asks if Entwistle's failure to ask questions of his juniors was symptomatic of his management. The DG understandably disagrees. 11.28: Bradshaw says that a "deputation" was led by the deputy editors of Newsnight to the deputy head of news Steve Mitchell about the decision to drop the Savile investigation. He says Entwistle has been "badly let down" by his staff at the head of news, clearly meaning Mitchell and Helen Boaden, the head of the department. 11.26: The MPs are focusing on Rippon's saying in an email that he didn't want to involve a "long political chain" in the decision, but the DG says he doesn't know what the Newsnight editor meant by that. 11.23: Bradshaw is himself an ex-BBC News reporter, so there is both knowledge and perhaps bitter experience behind his strong questioning of the DG. 11.22: Bradshaw rightly points out that the main element of the editor Peter Rippon's story about why he dropped it is that he said the police knew about all the witnesses interviewed by Newsnight, when at least one of them had never spoken to detectives. 11.20: He may regret using phrase "distance himself" but it is easy to see why, as Entwistle says, he didn't want the Newsnight reporters to be interviewed by people in their direct chain of command. Bradshaw says he did not act decisively once they had been tipped off by the reporters involved that their editor had published an inaccurate account of why the investigation was pulled. 11.18: Entwistle says he asked a senior colleague to investigation Newsnight. He said he had to be able to maintain distance from allegations personally rather than get involved himself. 11.16: The MPs are now moving on to the question of why Newsnight dropped its investigation into Savile. Ben Bradshaw, former culture secretary and new Labour member of the committee, says it was a catastrophic mistake. Entwistle agrees that the investigation should have been allowed to run. 11.15: He tells MPs that the culture of the BBC has changed since the sexual harassment that was present in earlier years, but it has not changed enough. The BBC has brought in a QC to make sure it changes now faster and sufficiently to a level that is appropriate. 11.13: On a historical note, Entwistle says that the minimum age for guests on Top of the Pops was increased from 15 to 16 following a newspaper investigation. Ironically, given events of the last year, this was an achievement of the now-defunct News of the World. 11.11: Entwistle says he had no prior knowledge of the content of an interview with Karin Ward, who appeared on Panorama last night complaining she was abused by Savile. He saw it with the rest of us. Editorial independence being observed he says. 11.09: Looking at the Twitter feed of people reporting on this hearing, it is clear as crystal that Entwistle has been clear as mud over his numbers. Some think this 8 to 10 number is about current sexual harassment cases, but others think it is historical cases from as long ago as the 60s. I side with the latter. 11.07: David Jordan, head of the editorial policy unit, says that any cases that come to their attention involving current staff are being handed straight to the police. 11.05: Entwistle now says the number of historical cases they are looking at is 8 to 10. The 5 to 10 he mentioned seems to be the number of harassment cases he thinks an organisation of the BBC's size would have each year. Bit confusing that. 11.04: The BBC's own news Twitter account are obviously not finding this very comfortable either. Here is a recent tweet from its coverage of the committee. 11.02: Rotheram presses on whether there was a paedophile ring at work in the BBC. Entwistle says Savile's "disgusting" activities were very successfully concealed. He compares it to the Sandusky case involving the head coach of the University of Pennsylvania football team. He says these kinds of scandals are "institutionally very difficult to discover." 11.00: Entwistle says he regards the BBC's child protection policies as "fit for purpose" as Labour's Steve Rotherham takes over questioning. Not a phrase with a happy history, but the DG does not seem to be ahead of the game here. 10.58: Davies calls his lack of knowledge "lamentable," especially that he doesn't know enough about people currently facing harassment complaints, and asks if he is still maintaining what he said to Whittingdale at the start about handling the scandal well. Entwistle stumbles over an answer saying he believes the internal inquiries are the right thing to do. 10.56: Entwistle cannot answer who it was who decided to "bus in" young children to entertainment programmes in the 70s and 80s. He says it is part of the inquiry he has set up. 10.55: Davies says it is "unacceptable" that Entwistle cannot say how many active and serious allegations about sexual harassment more recently than the "historical" cases involving Savile and possibly others. The DG looks very uneasy as he has to admit that some people facing allegations are still employed by the broadcaster. 10.53: He doesn't know the statistics and is not at ease telling the MP how he is coping with an ongoing investigation. He ums and ers as he says the BBC is looking at 5 to 10 serious allegations "over the whole period." 10.52: Entwistle is struggling a little as Davies presses him on whether he is investigating current or past complaints that have been made against BBC employees. [apologies again but we are having technical problems here. Hope to restore service very soon.] 10.47: The correction was a matter of embarrassment and regret, he tells MPs. Philip Davies, the Conservative MP, takes up the cudgels and is immediately asking about the "culture" of abuse at the BBC when Savile was allegedly abusing girls. 10.46: The director general fights back saying "everybody" should be proud of the way Panorama has interrogated its own corporate situation in a way that is unmatched in the world. But he has to concede the last 24 hours have not been perfect handling, with a correction to the explanation originally given by the editor of Newsnight for his decision to drop the investigation in December 2011. 10.44:Entwistle states the obvious: We have taken longer to do things than in a perfect world we would have liked. 10.43: Entwistle says that what Savile did is a matter of "grave regret" to him and can only be viewed with horror, but has just explained that his initial reaction to the scandal was informed by the police desire for him not to interfere in their work. 10.42: Mr Entwistle declines to accept the characterisation by veteran BBC reporter John Simpson of the Savile scandal as the most embarrassing for 50 years, nor that it was badly handled. 10.40: Sorry embarrassing technical glitch. Just getting it sorted as the committee starts its hearing. 10.37: Mr Entwistle will be trying to present a picture of a stable BBC which is in control of this investigation without compromising either the police inquiry or the two internal probes he has announced already. Tricky balance to be helpful without giving too much away. 10.34: People are now filing into the Thatcher Room in Portcullis House, the annex to Parliament where many select committee meetings are held. MPs, chaired by John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP, are in their seats. 10.32: Paul Waugh, political blogger at Politicshome.com, is on the spot and we aren't sure that Mr Entwistle will enjoy his comparison: 10.30: If you want to follow the appearance before MPs, here is the link to the UK parliament's webstream. 10.26: Here are the FT's stories on the Savile scandal from Tuesday's paper. The main story looks at how the BBC corrected its version of events in a public statement while there is also comment from John Lloyd and Simon Kuper.