BBC medical drama Casualty received a complaint earlier this year over offensive language in an episode before watershed.

Ofcom has ruled that BBC drama Casualty has breached broadcasting regulations after swear words appeared in subtitles before the watershed.

Although the repeated episode, which aired on June 12, didn’t include any audio of offensive language, the word “fu****g” appeared in the optional subtitles.

The media watchdog in turn received a complaint about the swearing which Ofcom have now upheld.

On Monday, Ofcom declared Casualty had breached its rule that prohibits the “most offensive language on television before the watershed”, as it was aired at 10.30am on TV channel Drama.

As a result, UKTV Media who hold the licence for Drama, have since apologised for the incident and have stated the episode was “incorrectly subtitled”.

Subtitles for the episode offensive language (Image: BBC)

They also explained subtitling for the show is outsourced to Red Bee Media, who had not followed the correct protocols.

Because of this, they’ve been disciplined and withdrawn from subtitling duties until they have been through a thorough retraining process with their line manager.

UKTV has said the error in question is the first of its nature that they’ve experienced.

A spokesperson from UKTV said: “This subtitling error occurred due to human error and we apologise for any offence caused.

UKTV Media have since apologised for the incident (Image: BBC)

“We have comprehensive guidance in place which has been reshared with the subtitling team.

“We take our commitment to providing subtitling for our viewers extremely seriously.

“We continue to exceed the required quota for subtitling and audio description on our channels.”

Taking action to ensure a similar incident doesn’t happen again, Both UKTV and Red Bee have since put in extra training and processes.

The subtitles said “f*****g” twice within the episode (Image: BBC)

Asking Ofcom to consider the case resolved, the regulator took into account UKTV hadn’t experienced this problem before and took action to address it afterwards.

However, as there were no mitigating factors such as an on-air apology, Ofcom decided to rule that the broadcast was in breach of rule 1.14 of the code, which prevents offensive language before the watershed.

Although the medical-based drama usually airs on BBC One, Drama is a channel which specialises in repeats of well-known British TV series.