L26 Response Not Accepted

Arbitration and Costs

Recommendation

It should be open any subscriber to a recognised regulatory body to rely on the fact of such membership and on the opportunity it provides for the claimant to use a fair, fast and inexpensive arbitration service. It could request the court to encourage the use of that system of arbitration and, equally, to have regard to the availability of the arbitration system when considering claims for costs incurred by a claimant who could have used the arbitration service. On the issue of costs, it should equally be open to a claimant to rely on failure by a newspaper to subscribe to the regulator thereby depriving him or her of access to a fair, fast and inexpensive arbitration service. Where that is the case, in the exercise of its discretion, the court could take the view that, even where the defendant is successful, absent unreasonable or vexatious conduct on the part of the claimant, it would be inappropriate for the claimant to be expected to pay the costs incurred in defending the action.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 would have allowed courts to consider regulatory membership when awarding costs in privacy and defamation claims against publishers.
- Section 40 was enacted in 2013 but was never commenced by any government (Crime and Courts Act 2013, s.40, legislation.gov.uk).
- The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport stated on 1 March 2018 that Section 40 would be repealed without commencement (Oral Statement, DCMS, 1 March 2018).
- Section 40 was omitted from the statute book on 24 July 2024 by the Media Act 2024, s.50(2), removing the costs incentive entirely (Media Act 2024, legislation.gov.uk).
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 10 Apr 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Not Accepted
Not Accepted UK Government
29 Nov 2012

Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which would have created an incentive for publishers to join a recognised regulatory body, was enacted but never commenced. On 1 March 2018, the Secretary of State announced that Section 40 would not be commenced and would be repealed. Section 40 was repealed by Section 50 of the Media Act 2024 (Royal Assent 24 May 2024). This recommendation was contingent on a costs incentive framework that no longer exists. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/leveson-consultation-response

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 progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Not Implemented
24 May 2024
UK Parliament legislation

Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 would have allowed courts to consider regulatory membership when awarding costs. Section 40 was never commenced and was repealed by Section 50 of the Media Act 2024 (Royal Assent 24 May 2024). The central enforcement mechanism of the Leveson framework has been permanently removed from statute.

View detailed findings

Section 40 was repealed without ever being commenced. The costs incentive that would have driven publishers toward recognised regulation has been permanently abolished.

Media Act 2024, Section 50 - repeal of Section 40 View Source
Source
Report An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press 29 Nov 2012
Responsible Bodies
UK Government Primary
Recommendation age 13.5 yrs
Last formal update 4931 days ago