Recommendation L92: Secretary of State Media Merger Decisions
From An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, published 29 November 2012.
Recommendation
The Secretary of State should remain responsible for public interest decisions in relation to media mergers. The Secretary of State should be required either to accept the advice provided by the independent regulators, or to explain why that advice has been rejected. At the same time, whichever way the Secretary of State decides the matter, the nature and extent of any submissions or lobbying to which the Secretary of State and his officials and advisors had been subject should be recorded and published.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked ministers to explain rejected regulator advice and publish lobbying on media mergers. In August 2014, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport stated that the government would not consider changes to the regulatory framework for media plurality until a measurement framework and baseline assessment had been delivered (Department for Culture, Media and Sport response, Aug 2014). Consequently, the department did not review existing regulatory levers or propose potential remedies (Department for Culture, Media and Sport response, Aug 2014).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Government has been clear that it will not consider changes to the existing policy or regulatory framework for media plurality until the measurement framework and baseline assessment have been delivered, so that we can ensure any changes are proportionate and targeted. Therefore our response to the consultation does not seek to review existing regulatory and policy levers, nor does it seek to propose potential remedies.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
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.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from UK Government has been found in the sources searched (last checked 24 February 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- UK Government
Response