The Telegraph has been found in breach of the Editors’ Code with a headline claiming that a quarter of sex crimes in the UK were being carried out by “foreigners”.
The article, headlined in print as “Quarter of sex crimes carried out by foreigners”, was published in March.
It was based on Ministry of Justice figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws. The article also referred to the figure as “up to a quarter” while the online headline referred to “nearly a quarter”.
But the data only showed definitively that 15% of sexual offences were accounted for by foreign nationals between 2021 and 2023.
A further 8% of convictions were recorded as unknown nationalities.
The Telegraph’s article claimed this cohort was “likely to largely include non-British nationals” taking the total “committed by foreigners” to 23%, contrasting this with 9.3% of the UK population being made up by foreign nationals.
IPSO’s complaints committee said that although the article set out the assumptions made to reach the 23% figure, the print headline went further by not making it clear this was a “likely” figure and that it was the highest possible result.
“The headline therefore gave the misleading impression that it had been established by the data that the ‘quarter’ figure was the definitive position – rather than the highest estimate,” the regulator said.
IPSO added that this meant the headline “constituted a lack of care on the publication’s part – it had the data available, which the article clearly set out, and care had not been taken to present the headline accurately and in accordance with the data”.
It also said the headline was not supported by the text as the article did not say the data had found “a quarter” of sex crimes were committed by foreign nationals.
IPSO said the online version of the headline, saying “nearly a quarter”, was also not sufficiently clear.
The regulator went on to say that “the accurate reporting of who has committed sex offences is a matter of clear public interest” and therefore presenting the percentage claim as The Telegraph had was “significantly misleading” and needed correction.
The newspaper has now published a correction in print and online and edited the online version to say “up to a quarter” in the headline.
Last month the Daily Mail was admonished by IPSO over a story falsely claiming “one in 12 living in London is an illegal migrant” – after the publisher said it had taken the information from The Telegraph.
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