L65 Response Accepted in Part AI-assessed

ICO Specialist Knowledge Review

Recommendation

The Information Commissioner's Office should take the opportunity to review the availability to it of specialist legal and practical knowledge of the application of the data protection regime to the press, and to any extent necessary address it.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to ICO (27 February 2025; gov.uk, 29 November 2012), the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has developed specialist knowledge regarding the application of the data protection regime to the press. This includes the development of the Journalism Code of Practice, published in 2023, and its ongoing handling of press-related complaints and enforcement actions.
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 has developed specialist knowledge on data protection and the press, including through the development of the Journalism Code of Practice (2023) and its handling of press-related complaints and enforcement.

View detailed findings

ICO specialist capacity on press data protection has been developed.

ICO specialist expertise View Source
Source
Report An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press 29 Nov 2012
Responsible Bodies
Information Commissioner Primary
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago