The BBC spent over £1 million fighting against women and BAME staff over equal pay, it has been revealed.
Scottish MP John Nicolson has slammed the corporation for a “flagrant misuse of licence-payers money” after having the figures confirmed.
Nicolson, a former BBC journalist, is a member of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee who cross-examined the new Director-General, Tim Davie, on the issue last year.
At the hearing Davie could not confirm the figure but has now written to the committee with details.
But a letter addressed to the DCMS Committee dated 20 January 2021, the BBC disclosed it had been billed £1,121,652 by external lawyers for 2,688 hours, an average of more than £417 per hour, fighting equal pay and race discrimination cases.
In addition to the amount spent on external counsel, the BBC also admitted its in-house lawyers had spent a total number of 2,452 hours fighting allegations of equal pay and/or race discrimination.
During the hearing on 29th September last year Nicolson asked Tim Davie “How much have you spent on lawyers’ fees fighting women in total? I think it’s going to be a huge figure.”
Davie responded, “I don’t think we’ve got this number.”
Commenting on the revelations, Nicolson said: “The BBC has so far splurged over a million pounds and thousands of hours fighting women and BAME staff. They’ve lost every single case.
“It is time for the BBC to stop fighting women and minorities over equality.”
In 2017, the BBC was forced by the Culture committee to publish the salaries of its highest-earning presenters which revealed an imbalance between the numbers of men and women at the top of the list.
