L9 Response Accepted in Part AI-assessed

Internal Governance Processes

Recommendation

The Board should require, of those who subscribe, appropriate internal governance processes, transparency on what governance processes they have in place, and notice of any failures in compliance, together with details of steps taken to deal with failures in compliance.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to Independent evidence (2025-02-27), while IPSO formally requires subscribing publications to have internal governance processes, evidence indicates a lack of meaningful enforcement, with zero standards investigations conducted in over 10 years of operation and only 0.7% of complaints upheld between 2018 and 2022. According to the Official government response (2012-11-29), the Prime Minister accepted the principles for independent self-regulation, including an independent board, in 2012, but rejected statutory underpinning.
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.

Insufficient Progress
27 Feb 2025
IPSO Other

IPSO requires subscribing publications to have internal governance processes. However IPSO has conducted zero standards investigations in over 10 years of operation and upheld only 0.7% of complaints (52 out of thousands over 2018-2022). The PRP's 2024 review described IPSO as 'only the latest stage in what Lord Leveson defined as a pattern of cosmetic reform by the press.'

View detailed findings

The requirement exists on paper but IPSO's complete failure to enforce governance standards (zero investigations, 0.7% complaint upheld rate) means internal governance is not meaningfully monitored.

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