L63 Response Accepted in Part AI-assessed

ICO Adopt DPP Guidelines

Recommendation

The Information Commissioner's Office should immediately adopt the Guidelines for Prosecutors on assessing the public interest in cases affecting the media, issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions in September 2012.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to ICO records from February 2025, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) adopted the Guidelines for Prosecutors on assessing the public interest in cases affecting the media, which were issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions in September 2012. According to the ICO, this adoption forms part of the ICO's approach to prosecutions.
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
27 Feb 2025
ICO Other

The ICO adopted the DPP's guidelines on assessing public interest in cases affecting the media as part of its prosecution approach.

View detailed findings

DPP guidelines adopted by the ICO.

ICO prosecution policy 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 Prosecution Public Interest
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago