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The BBC has published a new set of guidelines on investigations and secret recording.

The new guidelines are intended to assist programme makers planning large-scale investigations involving a significant element of undercover work including secret recording.

The revision was undertaken after the BBC Trust upheld a complaint against the BBC in June. The complaint related to a section of undercover footage used in an edition of Panorama entitled 'Primark on the Rack'. In the edition, reporters working for Panorama said the programme was putting 'Primark's claims that it could deliver cheap, fast fashion without breaking ethical guidelines to the test'.

Posing as industry buyers in India, the programme's reporters claimed they had evidence that some of India's poorest people were working long, gruelling hours on Primark clothes in slum workshops and refugee camps.

The programme, which investigated Primark's claims that it can deliver 'cheap, fast fashion' without breaking ethical guidelines, included footage obtained in a Bangalore workshop of three boys carrying out an activity described in the programme as 'testing the stitching' on Primark garments.

However the BBC was directed to make an on-air apology by the BBC Trust after it ruled that the broadcast breached BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy and fairness. The committee concluded that it was 'more likely than not' that this footage was not genuine.

The new guidelines emphasise the need for note taking and record keeping that will authenticate material and to plan for the scrutiny and challenge that can often follow a successful investigation. There is also new advice on the operation of undercover journalists.

John Stonborough, managing director of Stonborough Media Group, thinks the guidelines don't go far enough. 'It's a positive development but the BBC has managed to fudge and complicate the issues in an attempt to make everyone happy. The rules still need to be simplified for investigations,' he said.

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