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L50

Compensation for Distress

Leveson Inquiry · An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press · Issued 29 November 2012 · Addressed to: UK Government

Government responseNo response yet

DeliveryNo statement from UK Government found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

It should be made clear that the right to compensation for distress conferred by section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998 is not restricted to cases of pecuniary loss, but should include compensation for pure distress.

Leveson Inquiry, An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press · 29 Nov 2012 Source PDF →

Report-level response context

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.

Government response

●No formal government response recorded

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

Site note: No government response to this recommendation was found. The Information Commissioner's response to the report comments on the report's recommendations to the Ministry of Justice; those comments are the Commissioner's, not the Government's, and the Commissioner is not the body this recommendation is addressed to. Section 168 of the Data Protection Act 2018 provides that "non-material damage" includes distress; no government document found links that provision to this recommendation. Searched for this site between 23 and 25 September 2026, among other sources: the Prime Minister's statements to the House of Commons of 29 November 2012 and 18 March 2013, the Government's response to the consultation on the Leveson Inquiry and its implementation (1 March 2018), the Information Commissioner's response to the report (7 January 2013), and Parliament's written questions and answers that mention Leveson.

Delivery

No statement on delivery from UK Government has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.