The Met Police says it will assess the contents of the inquiry into the BBC’s Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana to ensure there is no “significant new evidence” to support a criminal investigation.
In March this year, the force said it was “not appropriate” to launch a criminal investigation into “unlawful activity” in connection with Mr Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana.
But it said: “Should any significant new evidence emerge it would be assessed”.
On Friday, the Met said in a statement: “Following the publication of Lord Dyson’s report we will assess its contents to ensure there is no significant new evidence.”
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told Sky News the report “raises some very serious questions” and “issues around governance” within the BBC.
He said: “I think an apology is a start, but I don’t think it’s the end of it.”
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden last night said the report “reveals damning failings at the heart of the BBC” and he will “consider whether further governance reforms are needed”.
Prince William and his brother Harry have both criticised the corporation’s failures surrounding the Panorama interview with their mother, with the Duke of Cambridge saying it “contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation”.
Mr Bashir had faked bank statements, which was a “serious breach” of BBC guidelines on straight-dealing, as he showed them to Diana’s brother Earl Spencer to gain access to her, the inquiry by Lord Dyson concluded.
He has since stepped down as the BBC’s religion editor due to ongoing health issues.
Diana during her interview with Mr Bashir
Despite his ill health, he and the BBC have apologised over the report’s findings, with Mr Bashir describing his decision to fake the bank statements as a “stupid thing to do” and “an action I deeply regret”.
But he claimed it had “no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview”.
The Panorama programme, which aired in November 1995, was watched by 23 million people.
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36 the following year.
In a video statement responding to the Dyson report, Prince William said the interview had “effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others”.
He called for it never to be broadcast again, adding: “This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events.”
Prince Harry said in his response: “Our mother lost her life because of this, and nothing has changed.”
Former BBC director-general Lord Hall, who was director of news at the time, said Mr Bashir and his team’s actions “fell short of what was required”.
Princess Diana with Prince William and Prince Harry in 1995
The corporation’s current director general, Tim Davie, said: “While today’s BBC has significantly better processes and procedures, those that existed at the time should have prevented the interview being secured in this way.
“The BBC should have made greater effort to get to the bottom of what happened at the time and been more transparent about what it knew.
“While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today.”
