BBC phone review gives all-clear

Blue Peter was fined by Ofcom after the results of a competition were faked

An independent review of the BBC's premium rate phone-line competitions has found no evidence of any deliberate deception or serious malpractice.

The review was commissioned by BBC director general Mark Thompson after problems regarding phone-ins emerged.

This included BBC One's Saturday Kitchen admitting viewers had been asked to phone in for a show they had no chance of appearing on.

Deloitte spot-checked six shows out of a possible 98 that use such lines.

Minor issues

But the auditors did identify some minor issues which did not comply with BBC guidelines - namely that on-screen messages did not always advise viewers that the cost of calls from other networks or mobiles could vary from the stated cost.

And in two programmes - one entertainment show and one sport programme - a small percentage of SMS votes were received after the lines were closed but were not included in the final count.

The BBC had already acted on results of a BBC internal review on premium phone lines by the time Deloitte had completed its report.

Deloitte was not commissioned to give an overall judgement on the programmes using premium phone-lines themselves.