{"id":816527,"date":"2026-10-28T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:44:09","slug":"bafta-trustees-may-have-broken-charity-law-by-accepting-free-guest-tickets-awards-and-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/816527\/","title":{"rendered":"Bafta trustees may have broken charity law by accepting free guest tickets | Awards and prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bafta trustees may have breached charity and company law by accepting free tickets for guests at the organisation\u2019s awards ceremonies, the chair of its membership council has claimed.<\/p>\n

Michael Pritchett told members at Bafta\u2019s annual general meeting that legal advice obtained at his own expense suggested offences could have been committed by trustees who approved the charity\u2019s accounts, which stated that no trustees had received remuneration or benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not go looking for what I found,\u201d Pritchett said. \u201cI found it doing the job that you gave me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed trustees had received complimentary tickets for themselves and a guest at the film, television and games awards, potentially for as long as 20 years. The guest tickets were top-table seats, he said, with a second ticket at the film awards selling for \u00a32,000.<\/p>\n

Bafta\u2019s governing document states that trustees may not receive remuneration or other benefits from the academy. Pritchett said the charity\u2019s 2024 and 2025 accounts stated that no trustees had received remuneration for their services, while its public register said trustees received no remuneration, payments or benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cCounsel advises that offences under the Charities<\/a> Act and Companies Act are likely to have been committed by the trustees who approved those accounts,\u201d he said. \u201cI really wish I didn\u2019t have to tell you this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pritchett, who is also a member of Bafta\u2019s governance and appointments committee, also raised questions about possible tax liabilities, saying benefits of this kind were likely to have been taxable since 2016, with national insurance potentially payable by Bafta. He said he could not establish whether the arrangements had been reported to the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

Bafta\u2019s outgoing chair, Sara Putt, said the board had decided to end the practice of giving trustees a guest ticket to awards ceremonies in 2025, after a recommendation from its governance committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe separate guest ticket and accounting matters are being examined by an independent review group,\u201d Putt said, adding that the board would update members in due course.<\/p>\n

Bafta trustees are volunteers, and it is understood they are invited to awards ceremonies in a working capacity, hosting tables and acting as ambassadors for the academy. It is also understood that guest tickets were a longstanding custom dating back to a time when demand for awards tickets was lower.<\/p>\n

Pritchett also criticised the refusal of a senior Bafta executive to provide records of who had received complimentary tickets, despite the committee\u2019s terms of reference stating it could seek any information required from academy employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe records belong to the charity that you subscribe to,\u201d he told members, noting that they had paid \u00a34.7m in membership fees the previous year.<\/p>\n

Pritchett called on trustees to pay any taxes found to be due, repay any money owed and correct the accounts. Putt responded: \u201cIf we were told we had to pay those taxes, we would absolutely pay those taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putt said the legal advice obtained by Pritchett and fellow committee member Sara Curran was based on the information available to them, while Bafta\u2019s own legal counsel had access to a fuller picture of the charity\u2019s circumstances.<\/p>\n

A Bafta spokesperson said: \u201cTrustees of Bafta are invited to attend events in a working capacity, representing the academy in an ambassadorial role, and prior to 2025 they could also bring a \u2018plus one\u2019 guest to accompany them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025 Bafta decided to review its guest tickets arrangements and discontinued the longstanding custom and practice of trustees inviting a plus one. The board has since established an independent review group to consider the historic guest ticket arrangement \u2013 the review is under way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bafta trustees may have breached charity and company law by accepting free tickets for guests at the organisation\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-816527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}