Recommendation L57: Reconstitute ICO as Commission
From An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, published 29 November 2012.
Recommendation
The opportunity should be taken to consider amending the Data Protection Act 1998 formally to reconstitute the Information Commissioner's Office as an Information Commission, led by a Board of Commissioners with suitable expertise drawn from the worlds of regulation, public administration, law and business, and active consideration should be given in that context to the desirability of including on the Board a Commissioner from the media sector.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked the Government to reconstitute the Information Commissioner's Office as an Information Commission. In September 2026, Stephanie Peacock, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, stated that regulations had commenced sections of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 to abolish the office and transfer its functions to a new Information Commission on 30 September (Stephanie Peacock, Sep 2026; Stephanie Peacock, Sep 2026). The Minister explained that the body corporate would have non-executive and executive members with collective responsibility for decision-making, though the statement did not address board expertise or including a commissioner from the media sector (Stephanie Peacock, Sep 2026; Stephanie Peacock, Sep 2026).
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
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Recommendation context
Site note: No government response to this recommendation was found at the time of the report. The Information Commissioner's response to the report comments on the report's recommendations to the Ministry of Justice; those comments are the Commissioner's, not the Government's, and the Commissioner is not the body this recommendation is addressed to. The Government's written statement of 14 September 2026 (HCWS337), on the Information Commission taking over the Commissioner's functions, is recorded as an update. Searched for this site between 23 and 25 September 2026, among other sources: the Prime Minister's statements to the House of Commons of 29 November 2012 and 18 March 2013, the Government's response to the consultation on the Leveson Inquiry and its implementation (1 March 2018), the Information Commissioner's response to the report (7 January 2013), and Parliament's written questions and answers that mention Leveson.
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
Department for Culture, Media and Sport says in progress (14 September 2026)
To give effect to the transition, the Government have made regulations commencing, on 30 September, the sections of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 that abolish the Information Commissioner’s Office and transfer all its regulatory and other functions to the new Information Commission.
From: Information Commissioner's Office: Transition to Information Commission, Stephanie Peacock, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Earlier statement on delivery (1)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (14 September 2026)
The ICO currently operates as a corporation sole, with powers and responsibilities vested in one individual, the Information Commissioner. From 30 September, those functions will transfer to the Information Commission, a body corporate with non-executive and executive members, and with collective responsibility for decision making.
From: Information Commissioner's Office: Transition to Information Commission, Stephanie Peacock, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Delivery statement