Complaint
The author of this article wrote that black people were seven times as likely to be stopped and searched as white people. A reader complained that this was inaccurate and asked who had chosen to misrepresent the facts. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
The figure quoted by the author was for 2021, and according to more recent data black people are nearly four times as likely to be stopped and searched than white people. The author had not chosen to misrepresent the situation, but was simply unaware of the latest statistics. In the ECU’s judgement, the correction and explanatory note added to the article by BBC News sufficed to resolve the issue of complaint.
Resolved