The BBC has said Gregg Wallace is not ‘entitled to any damages’ in response to his High Court claim alleging that the broadcaster and one of its subsidiaries caused him ‘distress and harassment’.
The former MasterChef presenter, 60, is suing the BBC and BBC Studios Distribution Limited after he was sacked in July.
His dismissal came after the Silkins review upheld multiple accusations against him, following an investigation into misconduct allegations while he was a judge on the flagship BBC cooking show.
He faced accusations of making ‘inappropriate sexual jokes’ and lewd comments on set, asking for the phone numbers of female members of production staff, and undressing in front of and standing ‘too close’ to women working on his shows.
The review upheld 45 out of 83 misconduct allegations, including one incident of unwelcome physical contact, three instances in which Wallace was said to have been in a state of undress, and multiple examples of inappropriate sexual remarks, humour and culturally insensitive comments.
Wallace issued an apology saying he was ‘deeply sorry for any distress caused’ and that he ‘never set out to harm or humiliate’.
The presenter subsequently filed a legal claim for up to £10,000 in damages, alleging that the BBC failed to comply with a request for copies of his personal data, which caused ‘distress and harassment’.
In its defence filed at the High Court, Jason Pobjoy KC, for the BBC, said: ‘It is denied that the claimant has suffered any distress or harassment as a result of the responses of the BBC.’
He continued: ‘It is denied that the claimant is entitled to any damages, interest or other relief, whether as pleaded or otherwise.’
The broadcaster also denied that Wallace ‘suffered any distress or harassment’ as a result of its responses.
What is a data protection claim?
When someone files a data protection claim in the UK, it means they are alleging that an organisation processed personal data in breach of the law.
Under UK law — specifically the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR — organisations have strict duties around how they collect, store, and disclose personal data. A claim like this could cover things such as:
- Improper handling of evidence gathered during an inquiry.
- Unlawful sharing of details from the investigation (e.g. leaking information about allegations).
- Inaccurate or excessive records being kept about someone.
- Failure to protect the confidentiality of sensitive personal information.
The court documents also allege that Wallace did not give the BBC any prior notice that he intended to file a legal claim.
The BBC admitted that Wallace wrote to the organisation in March asking for copies of his personal data and the Beeb’s solicitor said they did not offer a ‘substantive response’ within three months due to the complex nature of the request.
The BBC responded to Wallace in October with a copy of his personal data, which he was entitled to.
Mr Pobjoy said that the ‘voluntary disclosure demonstrates that the claimant has no basis to claim damages for distress, or otherwise, in respect of the withholding of such information’.
In court documents filed on behalf of Mr Wallace last month, barrister Lawrence Power said the presenter had requested ‘personal data’ from the BBC and BBC Studios related to ‘his work, contractual relations and conduct’.
Requests for access to personal data should be processed within a month, but this deadline can be extended if the information is complex, Mr Power said.
The BBC emailed Wallace in August, the barrister said, to apologise for the delay and stated it was ‘taking all reasonable steps’ to process the request in ‘a timely manner as possible going forward”.
At the time of filing the court documents, Wallace claimed he had still not received a response.
Power said that the body had ‘wrongly redacted’ information and had ‘unlawfully failed to supply all of the claimant’s personal data’.
He said: ‘By reason of the defendants failing to fully comply with the subject access requests made by the claimant for his own personal data, the defendants acted in breach of their statutory duty and in doing so caused distress and harassment to the claimant.’
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