Reference: 1142792

Jerin John Information Rights Adviser Information.requests@.org.uk

25 March 2021

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

Thank you for your request for information about complaints we may have received regarding the representation of sexual harassment on television.

We received this request on 3 March and have considered it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).

Your request

You asked:

I would like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for information relating to complaints that you may have received in regard to the representation of sexual harassment on television.

Could you please tell me:

How many complaints have you received each year in the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 regarding the representation of sexual harassment on television?

More specifically, have there been any complaints regarding the BBC One drama series, 'I May Destroy You'. If so, how many?

Do you have any information about the age/sex/ethnicity of those complaining about sexual harassment in TV shows in general and then 'I May Destroy You' more specifically?

I would like the above information to be provided to me in electronic form if possible.

If you can identify any ways that my request could be refined, I would be grateful for any further advice and assistance.

Background

By way of background, Ofcom publishes decisions about complaints we have received in the Broadcast and Bulletin (“the Bulletin”), which is published every fortnight on our website. The Bulletin covers a range of cases, including those which Ofcom has escalated for full investigation, and those which, after careful assessment, Ofcom has decided to not pursue because

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they did not raise issues warranting investigation. Issues of the Bulletin published after January 2020 are available on the Bulletin Hub, and earlier issues are available on our website.

For your information, Ofcom took on responsibilities as regulator of the BBC on 3 April 2017 pursuant to a new BBC Royal Charter and Agreement published in December 2016. Please note that under the BBC Charter and Agreement, Ofcom can normally only consider complaints about BBC programmes only where the complainant has already complained to the BBC, and the BBC has reached its final decision. This is known as the “BBC First” process.

Prior to 3 April 2017, BBC complaints about matters such as harm and offence could be considered by Ofcom against the requirements of the Broadcasting Code. However, complaints relating to due accuracy, due impartiality, elections and referendums and commercial references in programmes on BBC services funded by the licence fee fell outside Ofcom’s remit. Where such complaints were made to Ofcom these were referred to the BBC Trust.

Our response

In relation to your first request, we hold complaints data in a searchable form. However, please note that complaints logged on our database are categorised by reference to the relevant rule of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. We therefore do not hold a specific category for complaints about the representation of sexual harassment. Instead, such complaints are likely to be categorised as “generally accepted standards”, which also captures a wider range of issues identified by a complaint than those specified in your request.

Given this context, we would be required to undertake a manual search of each and every complaint received under this category and recorded in our system from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020 in order to determine whether the complaint falls within the scope of your request.

With this in mind, we consider the information requested is not readily accessible as a considerable amount of time would be needed to identify, locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information.

Section 12 of the Act provides that we are not obliged to comply with a request for the information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”1. We estimate that it would take over 18 hours to identify, locate and extract the information you require and, as such, the cost of complying with your request will exceed the appropriate limit. We will therefore not be able to provide any information in relation to these parts of your request as they stand.

However, if you wish to submit an alternative request with a narrower, more specific scope in relation to this subject, we would be happy to give it our full consideration. For example, you can specify the programme(s) you wish to seek complaints data for and in a shorter timeframe.

1 The “appropriate limit” is set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For Ofcom, the appropriate limit is £450 and is calculated at a rate of £25 per person per hour; this equates to 18 hours of time.

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However, given the significant volumes of complaints that Ofcom receives under the “generally accepted standards” category, exemptions may continue to apply.

In relation to your second request, we have received one complaint about I May Destroy You, which was referred to the BBC as it had not completed the BBC First process. This information was published in the Bulletin Hub, and can be found under “Complaints assessed, not pursued” by filtering for the “BBC First” complaints category, service name “BBC iPlayer” and Bulletin Issue Number 407.

We do not hold information on the complainant’s age, sex or ethnicity when we receive broadcast standards complaints.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further queries, then please send them to [email protected] quoting the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Jerin John

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If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request for information and/or consider that your request was refused without a reason valid under the law you may ask for an internal review. If you ask us for an internal review of our decision, it will be subject to an independent review within Ofcom.

The following outcomes are possible: • the original decision is upheld; or • the original decision is reversed or modified.

Timing If you wish to exercise your right to an internal review you should contact us within two months of the date of this letter. There is no statutory deadline for responding to internal reviews and it will depend upon the complexity of the case. However, we aim to conclude all such reviews within 20 working days, and up to 40 working days in exceptional cases. We will keep you informed of the progress of any such review. If you wish to request an internal review, you should contact [email protected].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

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