Complaint
The article, which reported a speech by Rishi Sunak setting out proposals to end what he termed Britain’s “sick note culture”, referred to “A record high of 2.8m people out of work as of February 2024”. A listener complained that 2.8m was not the figure for all people out of work, but for those of them who were economically inactive because of long term ill health, and that, although the article had been corrected in this respect, it remained misleading and biased because it did not reflect the downward trend in economic inactivity under the Conservatives up to the pandemic. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ˿’s editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
In its original form the article was inaccurate in the sense complained of. In response to the complaint ˿ news edited the article to refer to “a near-record high of 2.8m people ‘economically inactive’ due to long term sickness as of February 2024” and added an explanatory note. In the ECU’s judgement this resolved the original issue of complaint. The ECU saw no inaccuracy or bias in not referring to the trend between 2010 and the pandemic because it was Mr Sunak himself who had focused on the more recent increase, and the concerns he expressed about it were not contingent on earlier trends.
Resolved