Incoming BBC chief pledges review of pay-offs for departing managers

Tony Hall, 62, became director-general on Tuesday.

His immediate predecessor George Entwistle, who stood down over the Jimmy Savile scandal, walked away with £450,000.

Recently-published figures show 10 other leading BBC figures received severance packages in recent years that together amounted to £4m. The largest – £949,000 – was to former deputy director-general Mark Byford.

Lord Hall told the Radio 4 Today programme: “I think the size of the pay-offs has not been right, of course it’s not been right.”

He said he would be examining the corporation’s policy and comment on the “scale of those pay-offs” in the coming weeks.

He said: “I will not have a pay-off if I’m found wanting in all sorts of ways, I can tell you that.”

Lord Hall also said the BBC’s salary bill for senior executives would “not grow” while he was in charge, adding: “We have got to look at the way we spend all our money on managers, on programmes, on everything as if we were spending our own personal money because at a time when every single family in this country is feeling hard up, is feeling the pinch, is feeling the difficult times, we’ve got to be able to justify what we spend to the people who are paying us.”