Discussions are ongoing about the BBC's attempts to reclaim £200,000

The BBC's director general said there were “discussions” about the possibility of reclaiming £200,000 from disgraced newsreader Huw Edwards, but he has not yet repaid the money.

The BBC has ordered Edwards to repay the salary he has received since his arrest last November on charges of depicting child abuse.

Speaking before a House of Lords committee on Tuesday, Tim Davie said: “We have made the formal request and I cannot go into too much detail, but discussions are ongoing.”

“The money must be repaid and we have made the corresponding request.”

When asked by the Chair of the Communications and Digital Committee, Baroness Stowell, whether the BBC had given Edwards a deadline, Mr Davie said no.

“But we expect to make progress and get an answer,” he said.

The BBC boss reiterated: after the request was announced in Augustthat the company could consider legal action to reclaim the money.

“We will investigate this, as I have said publicly. I think it is a challenge.”

Edwards, formerly the BBC's most prominent newsreader, continued to receive his salary for five months after being arrested on three counts of producing indecent images of children.

He was suspended in July 2023 and arrested four months later. He only resigned from his position at the BBC in April.

In July, Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

The former presenter had “acted in bad faith” by continuing to receive his salary despite knowing what he had done, BBC chairman Samir Shah said in a letter to staff last month.

Speaking to the committee on Tuesday, Shah said there was “nothing more important than the public's trust in the BBC and we are the guardians of that trust”.

He added: “What Huw Edwards has done has damaged the BBC’s reputation.

“It was a shock when he learned he had been charged and had led this double life. The person who betrayed the nation's trust was Huw Edwards.”

During the committee hearing, Mr Shah also spoke about the BBC's independence, saying the government currently has too much influence over the broadcaster.

He said the corporation's global reputation had been “damaged” in recent years because of the government's “influence on the BBC”.

Mr Shah said: “We should try to reduce that influence and justify our responsibility to the public, the license fee payers.”

“I certainly welcome the idea of ​​expanding those relationships while scaling back relationships with the government and the BBC.”

Mr Shah said the BBC's 14-member board included five non-executive directors – including himself – appointed by the government.

“I'm not sure that's the right balance and I think we should think about it again,” he said.

His predecessor as BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, was a close confidant of Boris Johnson and was criticised for his dealings with the then Prime Minister before his appointment.

Mr Sharp resigned in 2023 after a report concluded that he had created the appearance of a conflict of interest by failing to fully disclose his knowledge of Mr Johnson's personal finances.

Mr Sharp defended his behaviour but said he did not mean to be a distraction.

Meanwhile, former Downing Street communications chief Sir Robbie Gibb has been accused of attempting to interfere in editorial matters following his appointment to the BBC board in 2021.

Mr Shah also told the committee that the government had too much influence over the BBC's finances.

“The most important thing is the independence of the BBC,” he said.

“As we know, there are many difficulties with the licence fee, but it was vulnerable to government action… which imposed tariffs on the BBC, which took money away from producing content, the worst of which was the World Service. We suddenly had to find £300 million.”

Responsibility for funding the World Service was transferred from the government to the BBC a decade ago.

“We need a future financing model that makes us independent of such measures,” said Shah.