L2 Response Accepted in Part AI-assessed

Chair Appointment Panel

Recommendation

The appointment of the Chair of the Board should be made by an appointment panel. The selection of that panel must itself be conducted in an appropriately independent way and must, itself, be independent of the industry and of Government.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
The government accepted the principle of an independent board for press self-regulation in 2012 (Official government response, 29 November 2012). The Chair of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) is appointed through an appointments panel process. IMPRESS's chair appointment process fully meets the Royal Charter criteria; however, the existence of two parallel systems means a single credible independent system, as intended by the recommendation, has not been achieved (Independent evidence, 27 February 2025).
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 19 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Accepted in Part
Accepted in Part UK Government
29 Nov 2012

The Prime Minister stated on 29 November 2012 that he accepted "the principles that Lord Justice Leveson has laid out" for independent self-regulation, including "an independent board, a standards code, an arbitration service and the power to demand up-front, prominent apologies and impose million-pound fines." However, he 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 Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press was granted on 30 October 2013, establishing the Press Recognition Panel as the recognition body. IPSO was established in September 2014 but has not sought Royal Charter recognition. IMPRESS was recognised by the PRP in October 2016. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/david-cameron-statement-in-response-to-the-leveson-inquiry-report

Read Full Response
Note: PM David Cameron responded to all 92 recommendations with a single statement accepting them "in principle" or "in part". No per-recommendation response was published.
Published Evidence

Published assessments of implementation progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Check the source type badge to see whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Reasonable Progress
27 Feb 2025
IPSO / IMPRESS Other

IPSO's chair is appointed through an appointments panel process. IMPRESS's appointments process fully meets the Royal Charter criteria. However the two parallel systems mean the recommendation's intent (a single credible independent system) has not been achieved.

View detailed findings

Appointment processes exist at both IPSO and IMPRESS but the fragmented regulatory landscape undermines the intent of a single credible independent system.

PRP Annual Report on Recognition System, February… View Source
Source
Report An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press 29 Nov 2012
Responsible Bodies
Press Primary
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago