EXCLUSIVE: The BBC has revealed that it signed nearly 300 settlement deals with staffers over the past decade to stop disputes escalating to an employment tribunal.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the British national broadcaster disclosed that 291 “settlement agreements” were signed between 2014 and 2024.
The BBC said that, since 2013, the agreements have not contained so-called “gagging clauses,” which prevent former employees from making disparaging or derogatory statements about the corporation.
In 2018, the BBC also removed clauses from settlement deals that stopped individuals from discussing the agreement or the circumstances of their departure.
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The BBC did not disclose how many of the 291 agreements were signed before 2018 with individuals who are prohibited from discussing the reasons for their dispute.
The corporation’s position is that these clauses never stopped people from making a “protected disclosure,” meaning they could blow the whistle on criminal wrongdoing.
The FOIA disclosure comes after Deadline revealed that Channel 4 has restricted what aggrieved former staffers can say about the company as part of settlement deals signed between 2017 and 2021.
All but two of 61 Channel 4 deals analysed by Deadline contained confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses that transparency campaigners consider to be non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
The UK government is now moving to amend the Employment Rights Bill to outlaw the use of NDAs to silence victims or witnesses of harassment and discrimination.
The BBC’s annual report showed that the broadcaster spent nearly £69.6M ($93M) on severance payments in the year to March 31 as employees were made redundant.
This was the highest level since 2021, when the BBC’s outlay on severance deals totalled £74.5M. The BBC does not require employees receiving a redundancy payment to sign a settlement agreement.
The BBC still enforces confidentiality clauses in settlements to protect commercially sensitive information that a staff member may have been privy to during their employment.