Leveson Report – your guide to the regulatory recommendations

Here is a six-point guide to the regulatory system proposed by Lord Justice Leveson:

1) The creation of a genuinely independent regulator

Leveson agrees with the view, expressed by Baroness O’Neill and others, that ‘independent regulation’ does not mean ‘self-regulation’. The existing system of self-regulation should be wound up. In its place should emerge a regulator that is both independent of the government, parliament and the industry. It should be ‘established and organised by the industry’ in order to provide ‘effective regulation of its members’. Leveson does not rule out the emergence of multiple regulatory bodies, and indeed allows for it, but he does not advocate such an outcome.

2) How will it actually be independent?

The body will be independent of government and the legislature because it has been ‘established and organised by the industry’. It will be operationally independent of the industry thanks to the governance provided by an Independent Board, appointed in a ‘genuinely open, transparent and independent way, without any influence from industry or Government’.