The Spectator’s Notes | 4 April 2013

The press is now to be regulated under the supervision of a body created by Royal Charter. On the website of the Privy Council Office, it explains that a Royal Charter is ‘a way of incorporating a body … turning it from a collection of individuals into a single legal entity’. New grants of charters are reserved for ‘eminent professional bodies or charities which have a solid record of achievement’. A body with a Royal Charter ‘submits significant aspects of the control of its internal affairs to the Privy Council’ (which is currently presided over by Nick Clegg): ‘This effectively means a significant degree of government regulation.’ Such a body should normally have more than 5,000 members. The University of Cambridge seems to be the oldest chartered body (1231) and the College of Chiropractors the newest (2012): 999 have been created in our history. If the press body were to be made the 1,000th, it would fit none of the criteria.