Newspaper Direct Holdings: Acquisitions by State-owned Investors
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts (Ian Murray)
The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) (No. 2) Regulations 2025, which can be found at www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/1351/made, were debated and approved by Parliament in December 2025, and came into force on 31 January 2026.
They amended the exceptions for state-owned investors in the foreign state influence regime in the Enterprise Act 2002 to provide that, if a state-owned investor acquires a direct holding of more than 5% of the shares or voting rights in a newspaper—up to a maximum of 15%—they must notify the Secretary of State and publish certain details on a website before the end of a period of 14 days beginning with the date of the relevant acquisition in order to qualify for the exception.
When the regulations were laid before Parliament, I made a written statement, which can be found at https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-10-30/hcws1009 that set out the Secretary of State’s commitment to sharing a statement every six months on the details that state-owned investors have published about their investments pursuant to the regulations.
Since 31 January 2026, the Secretary of State has received no notifications of acquisitions resulting in a state-owned investor holding more than 5% in a UK newspaper directly.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will continue to publish statements every six months to maintain transparency around state-owned investment in newspapers, and to build public and parliamentary confidence in this regime. The next statement is due in January 2027.
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