JONATHAN Ross can return to his £6m a year BBC job after it was decided that a three-month suspension was adequate punishment for his role in the obscene phone calls scandal.

The BBC Trust today said the calls to actor Andrew Sachs were `grossly offensive' and there was no justification for broadcasting them.

But Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said the body would not be taking any further action against Ross.

He said: "We have underlined very clearly that it is not the job of the Trust to make decisions about the terms and conditions of performers or the sanctions that are applied to them when they are found to be wanting.

"We are very clear that the director general has taken the right action with respect to Jonathan Ross."

He said the Trust could see nothing new in the evidence about that.

He said: "The common issue is not who the performers are.

"The common issue is editorial failings...the failings here are in the role of the BBC as the publisher of the material.

"The failings we have discussed this morning are serious but they are being addressed."

The Trust said the material broadcast on Russell Brand's Radio 2 show last month was a 'deplorable intrusion' into the private lives of Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

 There was no 'editorial justification' and no 'informed consent obtained' for airing the messages, which were left on the answerphone of the Fawlty Towers actor, the Trust said.

Ross is expected to return to work on January 24.

Former BBC Radio 2 boss Lesley Douglas authorised the Andrew Sachs row show with a single word on her personal computer - “Yes”, the trust found.

The report into the affair released today by the BBC Trust also showed that David Barber, the station’s head of specialist music and compliance thought the show was “very funny”.

He also told Douglas that Sachs was happy with the show, as he wrongly believed so himself. Both have since resigned.

Lifting the lid on how the chain of command led to rand’s programme being aired, the report said that a “relatively inexperienced” producer was left to take routine responsibility for the programme.

He joined the BBC in 2004 and the Trust said he was “relatively inexperienced to take sole charge of a talented but challenging performer”.

He was paid to act in accordance with the instructions of Brand’s company Vanity Projects, while remaining a BBC employee.

“This was unsatisfactory and likely to lead to a conflict of interest,” the Trust found.

Baillie, 23, said she was happy with today's findings.

The burlesque dancer at the centre of the controversy over Russell Brand's Radio 2 show issued a statement through publicist Max Clifford.

In it, she said: “I am pleased that the BBC took the time to do such a thorough investigation.
“I am happy with the findings and the new procedures which have been put into place to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.
“It is now time to draw a line under the matter and move on.”

Speaking at their family home in Kilburn, north west London, Sachs's wife Melody said: “My husband is the most wonderful person you could ever meet. They just picked on the wrong man.”
Mrs Sachs said the family was “tired” of the so-called “Sachsgate” affair, but said they had “no bitterness at all” towards the BBC presenters.

“Andrew has got nothing to say,” she said.

“I don't suppose he wants to do anything more about it. We are so tired of all this stuff. Whatever they do, they do, but we are so tired of it all.
“We are the happiest people in the world. Andy is fine and that's all that matters.”

Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said today's decision ignored the “fundamental issue” of putting quality programming ahead of ratings.
“The BBC Trust has sadly missed the point,” he said.

“This is not simply about an editorial guideline that wasn't followed, but the BBC failing to recognise that the stars it employs should not behave in a way that legitimises behaviour that is totally offensive to the vast majority of licence fee-payers.

“A gentle slap on the wrist for the management won't address the fundamental issue: the BBC should be chasing quality and not ratings.”

Labour MP Alan Simpson, who tabled a Commons motion calling for Ross and Brand to be sacked, criticised Sir Michael for not applying real-world principles to the BBC.

He said: “In any other organisation the chief executive and the chairman would have sacked the person on the spot and I think it is a measure of the extent to which either the BBC, or the media in general, feel that they are in a different world that does not hold itself to account in a way that every other institution in society would do.”

Liberal Democrat Phil Willis, who also called for Ross and Brand to be sacked, said taxpayers deserved better standards for their money.

“I am disappointed that this is the result and I think that once again the BBC have demonstrated that it is one law for its highly-paid stars and one law for everyone else,” he said.