Probe into BBC Scotland phone-in

One BBC Scotland programme was found to include a faked phone-in

An investigation has begun after a BBC Scotland programme was found to be among a number which misled the public over phone-in competitions.

BBC Scotland controller Ken MacQuarrie said any breach of editorial standards was "fundamentally unacceptable."

On Wednesday, the BBC announced the suspension of all of its phone-in and interactive competitions.

It came after an internal investigation unearthed a fresh batch of faked phone-ins, including one in Scotland.

The Scottish case was found to have occurred during BBC Scotland's Children in Need Appeal, broadcast two years ago.

In a segment called Raven: The Island, viewers were led to believe that a phone-in competition, open to the audience, had been won by a member of the public.

In fact, due to a technical mistake, calls from the public did not get through and the name of a fictitious winner was read out on air.

We cannot afford one breach of trust with the audience, where there is any deception Ken MacQuarrie Controller, BBC Scotland The faked BBC phone-ins Key points: Thompson speech BBC phone-ins: Q&A

Mr MacQuarrie told BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme that measures would be taken to prevent such an event happening again.

He said: "What occurred as far as we can ascertain is that the communication with the call centre fell down and a fictitious name was given to the audience.

"It's a breach of our editorial standards, it erodes the trust between the BBC and our audiences and is fundamentally unacceptable."

When asked if any members of staff involved in the Scottish programme had been suspended, Mr MacQuarrie said an inquiry into the matter was ongoing and declined to speculate on the outcome.

He added: "I think you have to take into context the small number of cases across the 400,000 hours of content in a year.

"However, we cannot afford one breach of trust with the audience, where there is any deception. The important thing is we put in place a programme to ensure we eradicate any of these events."

The Raven is a popular CBBC programme

Earlier on Wednesday, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the incidents were "totally unacceptable".

He also outlined a "zero tolerance" approach to any future lapses in editorial judgement.

All phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio will cease from midnight on Wednesday, while interactive and online competitions will be taken down as soon as possible.

The BBC Trust said it was "deeply concerned that significant failures of control and compliance within the BBC have compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty".

BBC One's Sports Relief in July 2006, Comic Relief in March 2007, Children In Need on BBC Scotland in November 2005, The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music and CBBC programme TMi were all found to have breached editorial standards.

Last week Ofcom fined the BBC £50,000 after the children's programme Blue Peter falsified the results of a phone-in competition during a live show.

The BBC also had to apologise over the clips from a documentary about the Royal Family that implied the Queen had walked out of a portrait session with a photographer.

The programme's makers, RDF Media, subsequently admitted that it was "guilty of a serious error of judgement".