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”.
Last week it was revealed Wallace, who was sacked from BBC's MasterChef earlier this year, is claiming up to £10,000 in damages from BBC and BBC Studios Distribution following his axe from the show. The former TV chef has claimed they allegedly caused him "distress and harassment" by failing to disclose to him his personal data.
He was dismissed from the show following an independent investigation into historical allegations of misconduct. The report found 45 allegations of misconduct were substantiated, including inappropriate language and humour.
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, according to PA: “It is denied that the claimant is entitled to any damages, interest or other relief, whether as pleaded or otherwise.”
The broadcast also denied that Mr Wallace has "suffered any distress or harassment" as a result of its responses. While documents also allege Wallace failed to give the BBC prior notice of his intention to file legal proceedings.
Mr Pobjoy also said it was “admitted and averred that primarily due to the lack of proportionality and scale”, the BBC had not provided Mr Wallace with “a substantive response” within three months.
He continued that after designating the request as complex, the BBC responded to Mr Wallace on October 7, providing him 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”.
It comes after Gregg filed court documents, seen by the PA news agency, in which barrister Lawrence Power said that Wallace had requested “personal data” from the BBC and BBC Studios related to “his work, contractual relations and conduct”. Mr Power continued that Wallace made subject access requests (SARs) to both the BBC and BBC Studios on March 6.
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 barrister continued that on August 7, the BBC emailed Mr Wallace to apologise for the delay and stated they were “taking all reasonable steps” to process the request in “a timely manner as possible going forward”, but he has still not received a response.
BBC Studios is claimed to have told Wallace that it was withholding parts of his personal data due to “freedom of expression”. Mr 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 SARs 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.”
Mr Power said that Wallace was seeking damages for “distress, harassment and loss of amenity not exceeding £10,000”, damages under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and interest. He is also seeking a court order that the BBC and BBC Studios comply with the subject access requests.
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