Privacy and Injunctions - Evidence - Parliament

Press Complaints Commission, Ofcom, and Authority for Television on Demand—Oral
evidence (QQ 754–818)
Q754 Ms Stuart: Are you able to tell us how many times the privacy clause and
the relevant codes have been breached in the past couple of years, and whether or
not the number of privacy complaints have gone up in the last few years? It is just to
give us an indication of how much activity there is and whether there has been
movement in it.
Tony Close: We receive on average each year about 200 fairness and privacy
complaints. We tend not to distinguish them. The numbers have been fairly static over the
last five years with no discernible trends up or down. Of those 200 cases, about 60% fall at
the first hurdle, with no case to answer at the outset. This year we have found breaches in
10 privacy cases, and for the four years prior to that we had roughly five or six privacy
breaches per year.
Q755 Ms Stuart: Have there been any changes in the reasons why they failed at
the first hurdle, or has that pattern also been consistent?
Tony Close: I think that pattern is fairly consistent. There is a statutory hurdle that
complainants have to get over in order for us to take a complaint forward. They have to
make out a sustainable case at the outset, and the numbers have been fairly consistent.
Steven Abell: We receive 500 or 600 complaints a year that touch on privacy in
some way or another; that is, all aspects of the Editors’ Code of Practice that relate to
privacy. Of those, in about 180 to 200 cases we find a breach, or a likely breach, of the
code, so it is a similar amount; it is two in five. Maybe a little more than 60% fall away very
early on, but in two out of five of the cases that come to us we get some sort of remedy in
the area of privacy. The number of complaints about privacy have increased in a similar way
to how they have increased overall. Complaints to the PCC over the last five to 10 years
have increased considerably, in part due to a greater awareness of what we do and an effort
on our part to get known.
Q756 Ms Stuart: Has there been no change in pattern as to whether they have
been successful or have failed?
Steven Abell: I suspect that the number of cases we have upheld in which no remedy
has been offered by a newspaper has not increased because more newspapers now offer
more remedies than they did five years ago. Therefore, the practice of settling complaints
and obtaining a remedy for a complainant has probably increased slightly, but it is a broadly
similar picture across the board.
Pete Johnson: The statutory requirements in force in relation to on-demand
programme services do not cover privacy at all, but of the 400 complaints we have had on all
issues over the year or so we have been handling complaints in this area, not one has
concerned an issue of privacy.
Q757 Lord Boateng: Why do you think some people, for instance the McCanns,
choose to go straight to legal action rather than take action through either the PCC or,
where relevant, Ofcom?
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