L71 Response Not Accepted Self-assessed

Aggravated and Exemplary Damages

Recommendation

The Report of the Law Commission on Aggravated, Exemplary and Restitutionary Damages should be adopted in relation to its recommendations that legislation should provide that: (a) aggravated damages should only be awarded to compensate for mental distress and should have no punitive element; (b) exemplary damages should be retained (although re-titled as punitive damages).

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to UK Parliament (27 February 2025), this recommendation was not implemented, and the Law Commission's recommendations on aggravated, exemplary, and restitutionary damages, which Leveson suggested adopting through legislation, were not enacted. According to the Prime Minister's statement of 29 November 2012, the government did not formally respond to civil justice recommendations.
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
Not Accepted
Not Accepted UK Government
29 Nov 2012

This recommendation was not implemented. The government did not formally respond to civil justice recommendations in the Prime Minister's statement of 29 November 2012. Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which would have created a costs incentive mechanism, was enacted but never commenced. On 1 March 2018, the Secretary of State announced that Section 40 would not be commenced and would be repealed. Section 40 was repealed by Section 50 of the Media Act 2024 (Royal Assent 24 May 2024). Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/leveson-consultation-response

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.

Not Implemented
27 Feb 2025
UK Parliament legislation

The Law Commission recommendations on aggravated and exemplary damages that Leveson recommended adopting were not implemented through legislation.

View detailed findings

Not implemented. The Law Commission recommendations were not adopted.

Law Commission recommendations 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
UK Government Primary
Themes & Tags
Personal data privacy risks Discriminatory media reporting oversight Law Commission Civil Law Damages Legislation
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago