Police Media Contact Rule
Leveson Inquiry · An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press · Issued 29 November 2012 · Addressed to: National Police Chiefs Council, Police
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The simple rule included within the 'Interim ACPO Guidance for Relationships with the Media' should be adopted as good practice. This is: "Police officers and staff should ask: 'am I the person responsible for communicating about this issue and is there a policing purpose for doing so?' If the answer to both parts of this question is 'yes', they should go ahead."
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 College of Policing Code of Ethics, published in 2014, sets out standards of professional behaviour including guidance on relationships with the media and the need for a legitimate policing purpose for such contacts (College of Policing, Code of Ethics, 2014).
- The NPCC adopted the principle from the interim ACPO guidance on media relationships into its standing guidance (NPCC, Communications guidance).
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government
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
UK Government · 29 Nov 2012 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 1 May 2013 · College of Policing The College of Policing adopted the two-part test for police-media contact as standard guidance: officers should ask whether they are responsible for communicating on the issue and whether there is a policing purpose. 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.