The British Academy of Film and Television will be able to strip future winners of their awards in cases of “proven dishonesty” or if they’re convicted of a serious criminal offence.
New provisions added to the Bafta rulebook give the body the power to retrospectively revoke competition honours, starting with winners in 2025.
On Wednesday the Bafta chair, Sara Putt, unveiled a new “forfeiture process” based on a review, citing the case of the former BBC News host Huw Edwards, who pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children earlier this year.
Edwards won seven Bafta Cymru awards for television presenting between 2002 and 2017. The BBC also won a Bafta in 2012 for its royal coverage of Prince William and Kate’s wedding, which was fronted by the Welsh presenter.
In a letter to Bafta members, Putt wrote: “Earlier this year, we were shocked by the news of the former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards’ arrest and subsequent conviction for child sexual abuse images offences.
“Following the news, deeply complex questions were raised regarding historic awards won by individuals and specifically, whether awards won in competition should ever be removed retrospectively.”
Putt said Bafta was “not the only awards body to navigate these complex issues”. She said the review by Bafta concluded that there were “exceptional grounds” in which an award won in competition should be reviewed and possibly rescinded, “and that we need to provide more clarity to entrants on this in our annual awards rulebooks”.
She added: “Starting in 2025, a forfeiture process will be introduced to our awards rulebooks with specific guidance on what would lead us to consider revoking a competitive award. This will include entries rendered ineligible through proven dishonesty, and the very rare instance of a winner being convicted of a serious criminal offence resulting in a prison sentence.”
Putt also highlighted that Bafta was “very clear” that honorary awards, such as fellowships, special awards and outstanding contribution awards, could be revoked because they were awarded by the academy and not “won” in competition.
She said Bafta thought very carefully about whether the criteria could be applied retrospectively, as the awards span the last 78 years.
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“Where would we reasonably draw the line? Would we choose to only look back one, five or 50 years? We agreed it would be impossible to do this properly. So we will look forward and apply this criteria to all competitive awards presented from 2025 onwards,” she said.
In 2022, Bafta cancelled the actor and producer Noel Clarke’s membership and his recently awarded outstanding contribution to British cinema gong, after the Guardian published allegations of sexual misconduct by 20 women who worked with him. Bafta said the allegations represented conduct contrary to expected standards.
Bafta has never rescinded a competitive award after presentation.