The BBC has been reported to counter-terrorism police over its admission that payments were made to the family of a Hamas official.

The broadcaster disclosed last week that it wrote “a number of times” to the film-makers of a documentary asking if the child narrator was connected to Hamas.

In a statement issued by the BBC last week, the broadcaster revealed that money was paid, by the production company Hoyo Films, to the 13-year-old narrator’s mother via the bank account of his sister. It described the sum as “limited” but declined to put a value on it.

The BBC has accepted it failed to carry out proper due diligence before the documentary was broadcast last month.

Lawyers have now alleged that the corporation had a duty to report its concerns to the authorities – and that a failure to do so could be a breach of terrorism laws.

The documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has been pulled from iPlayer after the BBC admitted it had “identified serious flaws” in the programme’s making.

Its failure to declare that the narrator’s father is deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas government has provoked public outrage.