Banijay U.K. Chief Says ‘It Was Completely Right’ for ‘MasterChef’ Producer Rather Than BBC to Conduct Gregg Wallace…

Banijay U.K. boss Patrick Holland defended the company’s investigation into sacked “MasterChef” host Gregg Wallace, saying it was “completely right” for the production company to take the reigns over BBC, which is the show’s longtime broadcaster.

“We are independent producers,” Holland said. “We have our duties and responsibilities, legal responsibilities to our staff that work for us as producers.”

“I think as producers it was completely right that it was Banijay that did that investigation that instructed the third-party solicitors, because it was an investigation into one of our shows. And I think the BBC were quite clear at the time that this was a Banijay investigation.”

Longtime “MasterChef” host Gregg Wallace was fired from the BBC show last summer after an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Holland made the statement during a Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into the future of the BBC at the House of Commons. The committee is comprised of cross-party MPs.

While the focus of the evidence session on Tuesday morning was on the relationship between the corporation and producers, one MP took the opportunity to ask whether having parallel complaints procedures at the BBC and its producers was “confusing” to the viewer, particularly in light of the potential role of the soon-to-be-launched Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA).

“The BBC obviously has a robust complaints procedure [but] you can’t really complain against a production company as a viewer… you complain about them as if you are an employee,” Holland noted, admitting that: “Historically the communication between production companies and the BBC [wasn’t] as good… Over the last five, 10 years they’ve become much stronger.”

He added that CIISA could offer a “less complicated” way forward, saying: “having a standards authority, which is overarching and is a way of being able to be the figurehead [in an investigation], which is across the producer and the broadcaster, that could be a way in which we evolve that is hopefully less complicated for the audience to understand.”

CIISA’s flagship reporting service, which has been years in the making, is set to launch this September.