L66 Accepted in Part

ICO Organisation Review

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

Source — verbatim from the inquiry

Inquiry recommendation

The Information Commissioner's Office should take the opportunity to review its organisation and decision-making processes to ensure that large-scale issues, with both strategic and operational dimensions (including the relationship between the culture, practices and ethics of the press in relation to personal information on the one hand, and the application of the data protection regime to the press on the other) can be satisfactorily considered and addressed in the round.

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

Published evidence summary

Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:

- The ICO has undergone organisational changes since the Leveson report, including the appointment of John Edwards as Information Commissioner in January 2022 (ICO, About the Commissioner).
- No published evidence of a specific organisational review focused on ensuring large-scale strategic issues relating to press data practices are addressed at appropriate decision-making levels, as recommended, has been identified to March 2026.

Response — verbatim from government

UK Government

The Prime Minister did not specifically address ICO operational recommendations in his 29 November 2012 statement. The Data Protection Act 2018 (Section 124) required the ICO to produce a data protection and journalism code of practice, which was published in 2023. The ICO has acted on several of these recommendations through its statutory functions. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/david-cameron-statement-in-response-to-the-leveson-inquiry-report

UK Government · 29 Nov 2012 Written response →

Evidence trail — what's actually happened since

  • 27 Feb 2025 · ICO The ICO has reorganised and updated its decision-making processes since 2012, including improved handling of large-scale strategic issues and press-related matters. View source → Confirmed Completed

Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.

How this page is built

Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.

This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.