Recommendation L31: Ofcom as Recognition Body
From An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, published 29 November 2012.
Recommendation
The role of recognition body, that is to say, to recognise and certify that any particular body satisfies (and, on review, continues to satisfy) the requirements set out in law should fall on Ofcom. A less attractive alternative (on the basis that any individual will not have the requisite authority or experience and will only be occasionally be required to fulfil these functions) is for the appointment of an independent Recognition Commissioner supported by officials at Ofcom.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended that Ofcom or an independent commissioner serve as press recognition body. In March 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron rejected appointing the regulator, explaining that he had "grave misgivings" about giving the task to an already powerful body and opted to establish a recognition body through a royal charter instead (David Cameron response, Mar 2013; David Cameron, Mar 2013). The alternative of an independent Recognition Commissioner supported by its officials was not mentioned in the statement (David Cameron response, Mar 2013; David Cameron, 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
The House will recall that Lord Justice Leveson’s own proposal was that legislation would give Ofcom the power to act as that recognition body. I said to the House on the day the report was published that I had serious misgivings about passing detailed legislation on press regulation. I also had grave misgivings about that task being given to Ofcom, which is already a very powerful body. I was determined to try to find a better way of establishing a tough regulatory body to enforce Lord Justice Leveson’s principles, and a different way of establishing the recognition body to check it was doing its job properly. That is what the royal charter does, without the need to write down in legislation the title, definition, functions, power, rules or composition of a new system of regulation—it puts those in place in a royal charter rather than in legislation and, as a result, it does not cross that Rubicon of which I spoke.
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.
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 says not accepted (18 March 2013)
From: Royal Charter on Press Conduct (House of Commons emergency debate), David Cameron, Prime Minister
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
Response - UK Government
Delivery statement