Former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace has discontinued his High Court claim against the BBC and will not receive damages, the corporation has said. The 61-year-old TV host was sacked last July following an investigation into historical allegations of misconduct, which upheld multiple accusations against him.

As a result, Mr Wallace sued the BBC and BBC Studios Distribution Limited for up to £10,000 in damages over allegations they failed to disclose his personal data, which caused him “distress and harassment”. However, the BBC was defending the claim and denied that Mr Wallace had “suffered any distress or harassment”. The corporation stated in court documents that he was not “entitled to any damages”. A preliminary hearing in the claim was cancelled shortly before it was due to take place on February 16. Today, on February 27, a BBC spokesperson confirmed that Mr Wallace has discontinued the claim. In a statement, they said: "Shortly in advance of a hearing, due February 16, Mr Wallace discontinued his claim. He is not receiving any payment in costs or damages from either BBC or BBC Studios.” Express.co.uk have contacted Mr Wallace for comment.

In court papers outlining his legal action, barrister Lawrence Power stated that Mr Wallace had sought "personal data" from the BBC and BBC Studios concerning "his work, contractual relations and conduct" in March last year.

Requests for access to personal data should be processed within a month. However, in more complex cases, it can sometimes take longer, Mr Power noted.

However, the barrister maintained that the BBC had "wrongly redacted" material and had "unlawfully failed to supply all of the claimant's personal data".

In their response to the claim, Jason Pobjoy KC, representing the BBC and BBC Studios, acknowledged that "admitted and averred that primarily due to the lack of proportionality and scale", the corporation had not furnished Mr Wallace with "a substantive response" within three months.

Nevertheless, he stated that following the designation of the request as complex, the BBC responded to Mr Wallace on October 7 with a copy of his personal data, to which he was entitled, and had issued an apology to Mr Wallace in August.

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Mr Pobjoy argued the "voluntary disclosure demonstrates that the claimant has no basis to claim damages for distress, or otherwise, in respect of the withholding of such information".

The review found that the "majority of the substantiated allegations against Mr Wallace related to inappropriate sexual language and humour", noting that "a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated".

Mr Wallace issued an apology stating he was "deeply sorry for any distress caused" and that he "never set out to harm or humiliate".