L66 Response Accepted in Part

ICO Organisation Review

Recommendation

The Information Commissioner's Office should take the opportunity to review its organisation and decision-making processes to ensure that large-scale issues, with both strategic and operational dimensions (including the relationship between the culture, practices and ethics of the press in relation to personal information on the one hand, and the application of the data protection regime to the press on the other) can be satisfactorily considered and addressed in the round.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- The ICO has undergone organisational changes since the Leveson report, including the appointment of John Edwards as Information Commissioner in January 2022 (ICO, About the Commissioner).
- No published evidence of a specific organisational review focused on ensuring large-scale strategic issues relating to press data practices are addressed at appropriate decision-making levels, as recommended, has been identified to March 2026.
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 10 Apr 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
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 progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Confirmed Completed
27 Feb 2025
ICO Other

The ICO has reorganised and updated its decision-making processes since 2012, including improved handling of large-scale strategic issues and press-related matters.

View detailed findings

ICO organisational review completed.

ICO organisation and governance 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 13.5 yrs
Last formal update 4931 days ago