PRP Officially Declared Part of Ministry of Justice

The independence of state-backed Press Recognition Panel has been called further into question after it emerged that the body has officially been declared part of the Ministry of Justice.

According to the MoJ’s annual report, the PRP has been designated as part of the MoJ departmental boundary since 1 April 2018.

The Daily Mail reported that: “The supposedly independent body set up after the Leveson Inquiry to oversee Britain’s Press regulators appears to have been quietly turned into an arm of the Government.

“The Press Recognition Panel (PRP) was set up by Royal Charter in 2014 in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry to certify that Press regulators meet Leveson requirements and are independent of politicians.

“However, its own independence is now at risk after it was subsumed into the Ministry of Justice without its knowledge.”

In a letter to the Treasury in December, PRP chairman David Wolfe QC said he did not know that the PRP had been included in the Ministry of Justice’s departmental boundary until it had been highlighted to him by the National Audit Office.

In his letter, Mr Wolfe said: “It has been brought to my attention by the NAO that the Ministry of Justice have stated in their departmental accounts that from 1 April 2018, the Press Recognition Panel (PRP) has been designated as within the ‘Departmental Boundary’ following a decision by HM Treasury.

“Whilst we note the decision of HM Treasury, it is the Board’s view that the PRP should not be included in any Departmental Boundary not least because to do so risks giving the false impression that there is some ongoing relationship between the PRP and the Department.”

No major local or national news media publisher has signed up to the state-backed system of press regulation, of which the PRP is an integral part, because of concerns of political interference in press regulation.

Instead, the vast majority of the industry has chosen to sign up to a system of robust self-regulation through IPSO.  

Separately this week, the News Media Association announced that, following the Government’s termination of the Leveson Inquiry and commitment to repeal Section 40, it had settled its legal action against the PRP.

An NMA spokesperson said: “The NMA has decided to settle its legal action against the Press Recognition Panel. The results of the Government consultation on S40 coupled with the Government’s commitment to repeal S40 mean that no useful purpose would be served in continuing with the action.

“In the unlikely event that any future Government would seek to implement S40 or any variation on it, the NMA reserves the right to challenge such a decision in the Courts.”