L75 Response Accepted

Discontinue Off-the-record Term

Recommendation

The term 'off-the-record briefing' should be discontinued. The term 'non-reportable briefing' should be used to cover a background briefing which is not to be reported, and the term 'embargoed briefing' should be used to cover a situation where the content of the briefing may be reported but not until a specified event or time. These terms more neutrally describe what are legitimate police and media interactions.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- The College of Policing published Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on media relations, which includes guidance on the conduct of briefings and the terms under which information is shared with journalists (College of Policing, APP: Engagement and communication - Media relations).
- The NPCC, which replaced ACPO in April 2015, has published guidance on police-media relationships and briefing protocols (NPCC, Communications guidance).
- No published evidence that the specific terminology recommended — replacing "off-the-record" with "non-reportable briefing" and "embargoed briefing" — has been formally adopted as standard police terminology has been identified to March 2026.
Sources
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)
This recommendation asks for cultural or behavioural change, which is difficult to verify from published sources alone. The evidence above reflects policy commitments rather than measured outcomes.
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Accepted
Accepted UK Government
29 Nov 2012

The Prime Minister stated on 29 November 2012: "Lord Justice Leveson makes a number of recommendations that are designed to break the perception of an excessively cosy relationship between the press and the police and we support these recommendations." The College of Policing published Authorised Professional Practice on Media Relations in May 2013 implementing the police recommendations. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/david-cameron-statement-in-response-to-the-leveson-inquiry-report

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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
01 May 2013
College of Policing Other

College of Policing issued media relations guidance in May 2013 implementing Leveson's recommendation. The term 'off-the-record briefing' was replaced with 'non-reportable briefing' and 'embargoed briefing' in official guidance.

View detailed findings

Terminology change implemented through College of Policing guidance, as recommended.

College of Policing - Media Relations APP 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
National Police Chiefs Council Primary
Police Primary
Themes & Tags
Police media disclosure Police Media Relations Terminology Briefings
Recommendation age 13.5 yrs
Last formal update 4931 days ago