Introducing a clip from an interview with the author of the research, Dr Malcolm Mistry, Ms Croxall said:

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has released research which says that nearly 600 heat-related deaths are expected in the UK.  Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says the aged, pregnant people…women and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.

The phrase “pregnant people” was followed by a facial expression which has been variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt or exasperation.  The ECU considered it was the last of these which accorded best with the explanation offered by the management of BBC News, that Ms Croxall was reacting to scripting which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the research, including “the aged”, which is not BBC style, and “pregnant people”, which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip which followed.  Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of “people” to “women” laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.   As giving the strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter, even if inadvertently, falls short of the BBC’s expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality, the ECU upheld the complaints.

.Upheld