Gregg Wallace discontinues High Court claim against BBC, corporation says

Former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace has discontinued his High Court claim against the BBC and will not receive damages, the corporation has said.

Mr Wallace sued the BBC and BBC Studios Distribution Limited for up to £10,000 in damages over allegations they failed to disclose his personal data, which caused him “distress and harassment”.

He was sacked last July following an investigation into historical allegations of misconduct, which upheld multiple accusations against him.

The BBC was defending the claim and denied Mr Wallace had “suffered any distress or harassment”, stating in court documents he was not “entitled to any damages”.

A preliminary hearing in the claim was cancelled shortly before it was due to take place on February 16, with a BBC spokesperson confirming on Friday that Mr Wallace had discontinued the claim.

They said: “Shortly in advance of a hearing, due February 16, Mr Wallace discontinued his claim.

“He is not receiving any payment in costs or damages from either BBC or BBC Studios.”

Mr Wallace has been approached for comment.

In court documents setting out his legal claim, barrister Lawrence Power said Mr Wallace had requested “personal data” from the BBC and BBC Studios related to “his work, contractual relations and conduct” in March last year.

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.

But the barrister added that the BBC had “wrongly redacted” information and had “unlawfully failed to supply all of the claimant’s personal data”.

In their defence to the claim, Jason Pobjoy KC, for the BBC and BBC Studios, 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.

But he added that after designating the request as complex, the BBC responded to Mr Wallace on October 7 with a copy of his personal data, which he was entitled to, and had apologised to Mr Wallace in August.

Mr Pobjoy said 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”.

Mr Wallace began co-presenting MasterChef in 2005, but it was announced in November 2024 that he would step away from his role while the misconduct allegations were investigated.

A review by law firm Lewis Silkin later upheld 45 of the 83 allegations against him, which mostly occurred between 2005 and 2018 and included one of “unwelcome physical contact”.

It said the “majority of the substantiated allegations against Mr Wallace related to inappropriate sexual language and humour”, adding that “a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated”.

Mr Wallace issued an apology saying he was “deeply sorry for any distress caused” and that he “never set out to harm or humiliate”.