Paul Foot Award
The Paul Foot Award is an annual award run by Private Eye, for investigative or campaigning journalism, in memory of journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004.
The award was originally set up in 2005 by The Guardian and Private Eye, for material published in print or online during the previous year.
The award was discontinued in 2015, but revived by Private Eye in 2017.
The winner of the prize is awarded £8,000 and runners-up receive £1,500 per entry. Prior to 2024, £5,000 was given to the winner and £1,000 to each of five runners-up.
Winners
2005
John Sweeney of the Daily Mail for his investigation into "Shaken Baby Syndrome" which led to the wrongly imprisoned mothers Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony being freed and resulted in the exposure of the prosecution's chief witness, the paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow.2006
David Harrison for his three-part investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in The Sunday Telegraph, which was praised by the UN and prompted action by British police and the Home Office.2007
Shared by Deborah Wain for her exposé of corruption in the Doncaster Education City project and by David Leigh and Rob Evans for their investigation into bribery in the British arms trade.2008
The top prize of £3,000 each was awarded to Camilla Cavendish of The Times for an investigation into the many injustices which have resulted from the Children Act 1989 and the professional cultures that have grown up around child "protection"; and Richard Brooks of Private Eye for his investigation into the mismanagement and financial irregularities surrounding the sale of the UK government's international development business, Actis. Four runners-up were each awarded £1,000:- Andrew Gilligan on financial irregularities in London City Hall and the London Development Agency
- Warwick Mansell on the Sats test marking scandal
- Dan McDougall on how children made clothes for Esprit, Primark and Gap in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh
- Jim Oldfield on how landowners and speculators planned to build an eco-town in Rossington against the wishes of residents
2009
At a presentation ceremony at the Spin Bar in London's Millbank Tower on 2 November 2009, the £5,000 Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism 2009 was awarded to Ian Cobain of The Guardian for his long-running investigation into Britain's involvement in the torture of terror suspects detained overseas. Five runners-up received £1,000 each:- Jonathan Calvert and Clare Newell on a number of financial and legislative abuses in the Lords which had previously escaped scrutiny
- Ben Leapman on MPs' exploitation of parliamentary allowances to subsidise their lifestyles and multiple homes
- Paul Lewis on the death of Ian Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 London summit protests
- Rob Waugh on cavalier spending at Leeds Beckett University, the takeover of Sheffield Wednesday football club, and the mismanagement of Leeds City Credit Union
- Stephen Wright and Richard Pendlebury on the lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari, and his criminal past and the bogus nature of his qualifications and claims of experience
2010
Clare Sambrook for her investigating, reporting and campaigning against the government policy of locking up asylum-seeking families in conditions known to harm their mental health, and scrutinising the commercial contractors who run the detention centres for profit. A Special Lifetime Campaign Award of £2,000 was also presented to Eamonn McCann for his 40 years of campaigning journalism on behalf of the victims of Bloody Sunday. Each of the runners-up on the shortlist received £1,000. These were, in alphabetical order:- Jonathan Calvert and Clare Newell on MPs and peers seeking cash for influence
- David Cohen on the plight of the poor in London, including children's poverty and the continuing existence of paupers' graves in the capital
- Nick Davies on phone-hacking conducted by the News of the World when Andy Coulson, later the government's director of communications, was editor
- Linda Geddes on evidence that DNA tests are not always accurately interpreted
2011
Nick Davies for a series of articles that helped to expose the scale of phone-hacking at the News of the World, beginning in July 2009 with the first report that phone hacking went beyond a single jailed journalist. Two years later, Davies, with colleague Amelia Hill, revealed that the News of the World had targeted voicemails left for the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which led to a public backlash against the Sunday tabloid. The award organising committee praised Davies for his "dogged and lonely reporting" the impact of which forced "a humbled Rupert Murdoch to close the News of the World and abandon his planned buyout of the satellite broadcaster, BSkyB, and forced the country's most senior police officer to resign". The judges commented that "This award is recognition of the cheering truth that the best journalism exposed the worst." Runners-up were Jonathan Calvert and Claire Newell for their The Sunday Times articles exposing corruption in FIFA. Also nominated were:- Jon Austin – Dale Farm evictions
- Katherine Quarmby – Disability hate crime awareness
- David Rose – UK aid to India
- Zoe Smeaton – Government payment errors to community pharmacists
- Jerome Taylor – Open justice and the Court of Protection
- Mark Townsend – Exploitation of women and children trafficked into the UK
2012
Andrew Norfolk for "a two-year investigation into the grooming and sexual exploitation of teenage girls". The runner-up was Rob Waugh for his exposure of mis-spending by senior officers of Cleveland Police and abuse of power by ACPO and CPOSA. A Special Campaign Award was made to Stephen Wright for his "tireless reporting over 15 years" on the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation and Justice for Stephen campaign. Also nominated were:- Tom Bergin – Corporate tax avoidance by Vodafone and Starbucks
- Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake – Tory treasurer sells access to PM/Retired generals lobby for defence contracts
- Ted Jeory – Corruption in the borough of Tower Hamlets
- Alexi Mostrous and Fay Schlesinger – Secrets of the tax avoiders
- Claire Newell, Graeme Paton, Holly Watt and Robert Winnet – GCSE and A-level examiners advising teachers on how to improve pupils' results
2013
David Cohen – for his work on gangs, which was part of the Standards Frontline London campaign. The Guardian's Snowden team received a Special Investigation Award for its investigation into the extent of mass surveillance undertaken by GCHQ – The Snowden Files: How GCHQ watches your every move. Also nominated were:- Tom Bergin – Corporate tax practices
- Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake – Westminster for Sale
- Aasma Day – Life on the margins of society: Preston Twilight Investigation
- James Dean – Fakes, fraud and forgery in Lloyds selling scandal
2014 (joint winners)
Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake for "The Fifa Files" in which they reported on a campaign waged by Mohammed Bin Hammam, Qatar's top football official, and how he exploited his position to help secure the votes Qatar needed to win the bid to host the 2022 World Cup; Richard Brooks and Andrew Bousfield for "Shady Arabia and the Desert Fix", a long-running investigation into corruption on a contract between the governments of the UK and Saudi Arabia. Also nominated were:- Richard Pendlebury – Migrant Lives
- Claire Newall, Holly Watt, Claire Duffin and Ben Bryant – Qatar 2022 World Cup Bid
- George Monbiot – How farmers caused the floods
- Mark Townsend – Sexual abuse of women at Yarl's Wood
- Dominic Ponsford and William Turvill – Save Our Sources
2017
Emma Youle for her investigation, "The Hidden Homeless: £35m to keep the homeless homeless", which revealed Hackney's enormous hidden homeless problem—highlighting the plight of the thousands who live in temporary accommodation. Also nominated were:- Daniel Balint-Kurti & Leigh Baldwin – The Deceivers
- Katherine Faulkner – How Royal Mail helps conmen defraud the elderly
- Will Hurst – The Garden Bridge investigation
- Billy Kenber – Drug company profiteering
- Maeve McClenaghan & Crina Boros – Big fish barons squeeze out small-scale fishermen
- Daniel Taylor – Football's sexual abuse scandal
2018
Amelia Gentleman for her investigation, "Long-term UK residents classed as illegal immigrants", which centred on tightened immigration regulations and the catastrophic consequences for a group of elderly Commonwealth-born citizens who were told they were illegal immigrants, despite having lived in the UK for around 50 years but with no formal paperwork to prove it. Also nominated were:- Gordon Blackstock – Hundreds of orphans buried in mass grave
- Carole Cadwalladr – The Cambridge Analytica files
- Madison Marriage – Men only: inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses were put on show
- Sean O'Neill – Oxfam sex scandal cover-upBuzzFeed News Investigations team – From Russia with blood
2019
Emily Dugan for the Access To Justice campaign, reporting the human cost of the degradation of England's justice and legal aid system. Also nominated were:- Ian Birrell (Mail on Sunday) - Autistic youngsters locked up
- Richard Brooks – Conservative Party Treasurer
- Phil Coleman – Fake Shrink
- Tom Kelly – Fleeced by fake taxmen
- Claire Newell and Team – MeToo Businessman Scandal
2020
Alexandra Heal for the Nowhere to Turn series, reporting on how police forces handle domestic abuse complaints against their own officers. Also nominated were:- Kit Chellel, Joe Light and Ruth Olurounbi – Is one of the world's biggest lawsuits built on a sham?
- Charles Thomson – Investigation into paedophile police informant
- Tom Warren and Katie JM Baker – WWF's secret war
- Nadine White and Emma Youle – SPAC Nation investigation
- Frances Ryan – Britain's disability scandal
2021
Robert Smith and team for "The Unravelling of Lex Greensill", reporting on the Greensill scandal.Highly Commended: Jack Shenker – Death at the Ministry- Matthew Weaver, Pippa Crerar & Jeremy Armstrong – Dominic Cummings/Barnard Castle
- Guardian Investigations Team, with lead reporters Felicity Lawrence and David Conn – Covid and the Conservative chumocracy
- Harriet Clugston and team – Modern slavery in the UK
- Peter Geoghegan, Jenna Corderoy & Lucas Amin – How the UK government is undermining FoI
- Jonathan Calvert & George Arbuthnott – Failures of State: Britain's coronavirus scandal
2022
Hannah Al-Othman and David Collins for "The Murder of Agnes Wanjiru". Shortlist:- Samantha Asumadu – "Prisoners may have been refused parole due to fake crimes on file"
- Susie Boniface – "Look Me in the Eye", campaign for recognition for the survivors of Britain's nuclear testing programme
- Solomon Hughes – "Pay Slippery – Tax fraud on government Covid test sites"
- Gabriel Pogrund – "Royal access", how Prince Charles' household promised honours and access in exchange for charity donations
- Eleanor Rose, Jessica Purkiss, Mirren Gidda, Aaron Walawalkar and Mark Townsend – "Despair and death in Britain's asylum system"
2023
David Conn for reporting on Conservative peer Michelle Mone and the PPE Medpro controversy. Also nominated were:- Phil Coleman – Human rights group condemns "dangerous" police taser use
- Paul Morgan-Bentley – British Gas breaking into the homes of the vulnerable
- Gabriel Pogrund, Harry Yorke – The BBC chairman, the prime minister and the £800,000 loan guarantee
- Matt Shea, Jamie Tahsin, Tim Hume – The dangerous rise of Andrew Tate
- Hannah Summers – The use of unregulated psychologists in the family courts
2024
Tristan Kirk for his entry "Single Justice Procedure: Conveyer Belt Justice", criticising the process for removing fairness from the law. Also nominated were:- Antonia Cundy, Madison Marriage, Paul Caruana Galizia – Investigation into Crispin Odey
- Anthony Lane, Humberto J Rocha – Stopping carbon windfalls for big polluters closing plants
- Lewis McBlane – A96 dualling: a Moray cover-up
- Justine Smith – CAMHS in crisis
2025
Patrick Butler and Josh Halliday for their entry "The Carer's Allowance Scandal", for reporting on the rules around carer's allowance, criticising the process for removing fairness from the law. Also nominated were:- Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff – Out of Sight: Missing People campaign
- Laura Hughes – Lead poisoning
- Aaron Walawalkar & Harriet Clugston – UK universities' Gaza protest crackdown
- Jim Waterson – Lime bikes and broken legs
- Abi Whistance – Big Help Project investigation