Recommendation L29: Recognition Requirements
From An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, published 29 November 2012.
Recommendation
The requirements for recognition should be those set out the recommendations set out above numbered 1 to 24 inclusive and more fully described in Part K, Chapter 7, Section 4 of the Report.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked the UK Government to base regulator recognition requirements on recommendations 1 to 24. The Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, granted by the Privy Council in October 2013, provided that the Board of the Recognition Panel shall grant recognition if a regulator meets recognition criteria 1 to 23, with the Board required to consider the concepts articulated in Part K, Chapter 7, Section 4 of the Leveson Report when making its decision (Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, Oct 2013). Earlier, in a March 2013 House of Commons speech, David Cameron, Prime Minister, stated that statutory regulation was unnecessary because the Leveson principles would be achieved through a royal charter (David Cameron response, Mar 2013).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
As I believe we have shown today, statutory regulation of our media, and statutory regulation to create a recognition body, is not necessary to achieve the Leveson principles. We can do it—indeed we will do it—via a royal charter.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: The Prime Minister's speech opening the House of Commons emergency debate on the Royal Charter on Press Conduct, 18 March 2013, as recorded in the Official Report (HC Deb vol 560, cols 632 to 634). The GOV.UK copy of the speech is the script written before it was delivered; its wording differs, and one of its passages is not in the Official Report at all, so the site quotes the record. He speaks for the Government; the site files his words under the Prime Minister's Office.
Site note: The Prime Minister gives this passage once, for the report's proposals for statutory recognition of a press regulator as a whole (col 633). The same words are recorded on recommendations 27, 28, 29, 30, 32 and 33.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
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.
Delivery
UK Government states no delivery position (30 October 2013)
1. The Board of the Recognition Panel shall grant recognition to a Regulator if the Board is satisfied that the Regulator meets the recognition criteria numbered 1 to 23 in Schedule 3, and in making its decision on whether the Regulator meets those criteria it shall consider the concepts of effectiveness, fairness and objectivity of standards, independence and transparency of enforcement and compliance, credible powers and remedies, reliable funding and effective accountability, as articulated in the Leveson Report, Part K, Chapter 7, Section 4 ("Voluntary independent self-regulation”).
From: Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press
Site note: The passage is the text of the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, granted on 30 October 2013. The Charter sets up the Recognition Panel and the criteria a press regulator must meet to be recognised. It does not report what any regulator or publisher has done.
Source
Responsible bodies
Who has spoken
- Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
Response - UK Government
Delivery statement