The BBC suspends senior executives from their duties

Phone-in contests also suspended

The BBC has said that "editorial leaders will be asked to stand back from their duties, pending reviews of why it took so long for a number of historical incidents to come to light". The senior executives have not so far been named.

This follows an avalanche or deceptions unveiled today as director-general Mark Thompson appeared before the BBC Trust.

The BBC has also suspended all its competitions. Phone-related competitions on BBC television and radio will cease at midnight tonight, and interactive and online competitions will be removed as soon as possible. Before today's developments, Ofcom had commented on the series of phone-in scandals saying there is a "systemic failure" in the way broadcasters operate premium rate lines.

Mark Thompson said the failures within the BBC, and in some cases by its suppliers, have "compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty".

All 16,500 programmes and online content staff will be required to attend a new training programme which will will "emphasise the absolute imperative to understand and comply with all of the BBC's values and editorial standards".

The BBC is also commissioning an independent inquiry into the incident involving BBC One and Queen Elizabeth. The report will be submitted by the director-general to the BBC Trust in the autumn and the findings of this inquiry will be made public.

A whole series of previously unreported deceptions have been reported this afternoon.

As recently as Friday 16th March 2007, in Comic Relief, viewers were invited to donate money to Comic Relief and were informed that by calling in they could win prizes which belonged to a famous couple. The first two callers taken on air gave incorrect answers. The other waiting callers were lost and a third caller was heard on air successfully answering the question. This caller was in fact not a viewer but a member of the production team.

There was a similar deception in Sport Relief, transmitted on 15th July 2006 on BBC One.