ICO Policy on Press Regulation
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.
- The ICO published guidance on data protection and journalism, covering the legal framework under the DPA 2018 and UK GDPR and setting out how the ICO approaches regulation of the media (ICO, Data protection and journalism guidance).
- No published evidence of a comprehensive formal enforcement policy specifically addressing press compliance with data protection requirements, going beyond general guidance, has been identified to March 2026.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Accepted in Part
Response
Accepted in PartThe 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
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.
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.