FOI request reveals BBC staff's disciplinary record
Action has been taken against 375 members of staff since records began in 2006, with English Regions division accounting for most cases
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The BBC has taken disciplinary action against 375 members of staff since its database of records for such cases began in 2006, according to new data released under the Freeodom of Information Act. A response from the BBC to a request made by user Ms M Mutcer to the BBC via the Whatdotheyknow website suggests that staff working as part of the English Regions journalism division account for the most disciplinary cases.
The figures suggest that 97 staff from English Regions have been disciplined since 2006, 49 from news and 49 from the World Service and Global News division. In total staff from journalism departments and the World Service Broadcasting division account for 264 or 70 per cent of the cases since April 2006.
The corporation's Studios & Post Production Ltd, UKTV, BBC World, BBC Worldwide Ltd and World Service Trust are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and as such their staff do not feature in the figures.
The figures do not show what the reasons for disciplinary action were by department. Behaviour or conduct has resulted in 65 actions overall and conflict of interest accounts for 23 cases. The majority of cases have resulted in a written warning or a final written warning, with only 26 cases of dismissal.
"The BBC takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and takes disciplinary action where necessary. However these instances are rare and affect just 0.5 per cent of staff, and the number requiring disciplinary action is even lower," a BBC spokesperson told Journalism.co.uk. According to a MediaGuardian report earlier this year , around 300 BBC staff had been the subject of disciplinary cases between April 2006 and February 2010 suggesting that 75 new cases have been recorded since this date.
Number of disciplinary cases by division
Number of disciplinary cases by reason
Written by
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)
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