The BBC has revealed that John Linwood, the technology boss that oversaw the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco, was formally relieved of his duties in July last year.

The corporation ended chief technology officer Linwood’s contract two months after he was suspended in May 2013, but has only just been able to confirm his departure following months of legal wrangling.

A BBC spokesman said: “We can confirm that John Linwood is no longer employed by the BBC. His contract was ended in July 2013.” 

The revelation comes less than a fortnight before a 3 February Public Accounts Committee hearing on the DMI project, where MPs have called witnesses including former BBC director general Mark Thompson.

Linwood, who earned £287,000 a year in his role as chief technology officer, will not receive a payoff despite contesting the BBC’s decision for some time through his legal team. Technology controller Peter Coles continues to act up in his place.

He was originally suspended in May after the BBC announced the closure of DMI at a cost of £98.4m. The BBC Trust said continuing with the project to create a production system linked to the BBC’s vast broadcasting archive would have been “throwing good money after bad”.

The debacle will be the subject of National Audit Office report later this month, while the Trust has already published a PricewaterhouseCoopers review into the matter. It found that the BBC took too long to realise DMI was in trouble and senior executives did not have “sufficient” grasp of the project to challenge its faltering progress.

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