L80 Response Accepted AI-assessed

ACPO Post-employment Restrictions

Recommendation

Consideration should be given to the terms upon which ACPO rank officers are appointed and, in particular, whether these terms should include some limitation upon the nature of any employment within or by the media that can be undertaken without the approval of the relevant authority for a period of 12 months following the cessation of the appointment.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to Independent evidence (2025-02-27), post-employment restrictions for senior police officers have been considered, and some police forces have introduced cooling-off periods for media employment. According to Independent evidence (2025-02-27), however, a universal 12-month restriction on media employment for departing chief officers is not in place, and according to Official government response (2012-11-29), the Prime Minister stated in 2012 that the government supported recommendations to address the relationship between the press and police.
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
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

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.

Good Progress
27 Feb 2025
Police / Home Office Other

Post-employment restrictions for senior police officers have been considered and some forces have introduced cooling-off periods. However there is no universal 12-month restriction on media employment for departing chief officers.

View detailed findings

Some progress on post-employment restrictions but no universal policy as recommended.

Police post-employment provisions 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 Vetting Inconsistencies Police Employment Media Conflict of Interest
Recommendation age 13.3 yrs
Last formal update 4863 days ago