Leveson Inquiry

The Leveson Inquiry was established in 2011 following revelations about phone hacking and other press misconduct. Lord Justice Leveson's report, published in November 2012, made 92 recommendations for reforming press regulation, police-media relationships, data protection, and media plurality.

The government's response was mixed. The Prime Minister stated on 29 November 2012 that he accepted "the principles that Lord Justice Leveson has laid out" for independent self-regulation but rejected statutory underpinning, expressing "serious concerns and misgivings" about crossing "the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land."

The government established an alternative framework through the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press (October 2013) and the Crime and Courts Act 2013. The Press Recognition Panel was created as the recognition body, though no major news publisher has joined a recognised regulator. Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, intended to incentivise membership through costs provisions, was enacted but never commenced and was repealed in 2024.

Some recommendations saw legislative action. The Data Protection Act 2018 implemented certain data protection recommendations, including compensation for distress without pecuniary loss and requiring the ICO to produce a journalism code of practice. The College of Policing published guidance on police-media relations in 2013. Ministerial transparency data on media meetings continues to be published quarterly.

However, the available evidence indicates limited progress on many recommendations. Of 92 recommendations, 77 remain recorded as "Awaiting Action" with no published evidence of implementation identified. The government rejected 15 recommendations outright, including the core proposal for statutory underpinning of press regulation. While 58 recommendations were "Accepted In Principle" and 19 were "Accepted", the public record contains limited evidence of subsequent action on most of these.

The inquiry's central aim of establishing a new framework for press regulation remains contested, with the statutory approach recommended by Leveson rejected in favour of a Royal Charter system that has not attracted participation from major publishers.