BBC spends £25m on severance pay-offs

The BBC spent £25 million on severance payments to 150 senior staff in the past three years, a National Audit Office report has revealed.

The pay-offs breached the corporation's own guidelines by being over-generous and were "poor value for money", the NAO said.

In almost a quarter of the cases reviewed, the BBC paid out more than the staff were entitled to under their contracts.

The BBC Trust said the NAO conclusions were "deeply worrying".