L58 Response Accepted in Part AI-assessed

ICO Policy on Press Regulation

Recommendation

The Information Commissioner's Office should take immediate steps to prepare, adopt and publish a policy on the exercise of its formal regulatory functions in order to ensure that the press complies with the legal requirements of the data protection regime.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to the ICO's January 2023 records, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) published a Data Protection and Journalism Code of Practice in 2023, which sets out its policy on exercising formal regulatory functions in relation to the press. According to Section 124 of the Data Protection Act 2018, this code was required.
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 did not specifically address ICO operational recommendations in his 29 November 2012 statement. The Data Protection Act 2018 (Section 124) required the ICO to produce a data protection and journalism code of practice, which was published in 2023. The ICO has acted on several of these recommendations through its statutory functions. 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.

Confirmed Completed
01 Jan 2023
ICO Other

The ICO published a Data Protection and Journalism Code of Practice in 2023, setting out its policy on exercising regulatory functions in relation to the press.

View detailed findings

ICO journalism code of practice published, as recommended.

ICO Data Protection and Journalism Code of Practi… View Source
Source
Inquiry Leveson Inquiry
Report An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press 29 Nov 2012
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Information Commissioner Primary
Themes & Tags
Personal data privacy risks Discriminatory media reporting oversight ICO Data Protection Policy Enforcement
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago