“A deeply stressful experience”: a woman who brought a sex discrimination claim against the BBC is awarded settlement damages.
Press release from APPEAL and Leigh Day
The BBC has agreed to pay thousands in compensation to a lone parent who believes she was discriminated against when she was prosecuted by TV Licensing, who prosecute many more women than men every year.
Josiane, a lone parent struggling with household bills, was prosecuted for not paying her TV Licence fee during the pandemic. Although the charges were dropped after she sought legal assistance from the law practice and charity APPEAL, she described the experience as “deeply stressful” causing her “sleepless nights”.
The statistics that show that 75% of prosecutions brought by TV Licensing are against women, and Josiane believes that the BBC’s prosecution processes are discriminatory. Represented by Leigh Day, Josiane therefore brought a private law claim against the BBC for indirect sex discrimination, particularly for the way that TV Licensing (a trademark of the BBC) identify, investigate and prosecute cases for the non-payment of the licence fee. The two parties recently agreed to a settlement with the BBC awarding Josiane £6,500 in compensation.
Josiane previously threatened a judicial review claim against the BBC, also based on discrimination, which resulted in the BBC agreeing to conduct a Gender Disparity Review, overseen by Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE. She was represented by the Public Law Project in her judicial review claim. The gender review report was supposed to be published at the end of 2022 but has been delayed.
Josiane is also the author of a 250,000-strong petition on change.org.
Josiane said: “I brought a discrimination claim against the BBC because I believe that the BBC’s processes for identifying suspects of TV licence evasion disproportionately disadvantage women. I accept that the BBC does not agree that this was what led to my prosecution, but I am pleased that they are undertaking another Review of the gender disparity in TV licence prosecutions and have accepted that mistakes were made in my case.”
Naima Sakande, Deputy Director of APPEAL said: “I am pleased that the impact of this unfair prosecution against Josiane has been acknowledged by the BBC. However, the BBC has failed to take responsibility or rectify its discrimination problem.
Last year the BBC brought criminal prosecutions against nearly 50,000 people for not paying their TV Licence. Before the pandemic, this number regularly exceeded 100,000. Not only are the majority of these people women, many are also struggling financially and have other vulnerabilities.
The impact of these prosecutions will land heavily on normal people during the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why APPEAL is calling on TV Licensing to suspend all prosecutions during the economic crisis.”
Leigh Day human rights solicitor Kate Egerton said: “The stark gender disparity in TV Licensing prosecutions has been clear for over a decade yet the disproportionate prosecution of women increases year on year. It is our view that the BBC’s current policies indirectly discriminate against women under our equality legislation, and that this is unjustifiable and avoidable.
“We believe that there are a number of alternative measures for investigating potential TV licensing offences that would reduce the disproportionate impact on women; we hope that the BBC seriously considers these as part of its review and implements a lawful system.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
· The petition calling on TV Licensing to suspend prosecutions can be found here: www.change.org/p/i-m-not-a-criminal-stop-tvlicensingnews-prosecuting-people-in-the-cost-of-living-crisis.
· APPEAL is a law practice and charity that fights miscarriages of justice and demands reform.
· Official government statistics on the gender disparity issue can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1119965/statistics-on-women-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2021-.pdf
· If you would like to use photographs or request an interview with Josiane or APPEAL, please contact Charlotte Threipland, Policy and Comms Lead on charlotte@appeal.org.uk or 07786 937 718.
· For further information on APPEAL’s campaign on this issue, see our website: appeal.org.uk/tv-licensing