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L92

Secretary of State Media Merger Decisions

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

Government responseUK Government: Under consideration (Aug 2014)

DeliveryNo statement from UK Government found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry 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.

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

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

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).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026.

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

●UK Government · Under consideration · 6 Aug 2014

Words of: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Media Ownership and Plurality Consultation Report, 6 August 2014

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.

Extract from: Media Ownership & Plurality Consultation Report: Government response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications Report into Media Plurality

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.