Press Regulation

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement on independent self-regulation of the press, made a short time ago in the other place.

I suppose that we should be grateful to the powers that be for the processes that have allowed us to identify a little more closely what happens in Privy Council matters, and how things are looked at and agreed. I think that we have all been a little astonished at some of the things that have come out, but at least it is beginning to come out, and for that we should be grateful.

We welcome the assurance just given that the Government, and indeed the Conservative Party, remain committed to the introduction of a royal charter that gives redress to victims when the press breach their code of conduct, while in no way interfering with the freedom of the press. As the Statement says, this is about,

“ensuring that the public has a fair system of redress through which to seek to challenge mistakes and errors when necessary”.

This is the position of the Labour Party. Labour supports a free and irreverent press as being essential to democracy. We do not support any state control of the press.

It is almost a year since the Leveson report was published. We accept the central recommendations of the report—namely, the need for a new system of independent self-regulation of the press, guaranteed by law. We strongly believe that there are real benefits if we work on a cross-party basis to implement these recommendations.

Your Lordship’s House will recall that Leveson’s proposal has the press setting up their own independent self-regulatory body, with an independent recognition body, independent of politicians and the press, ensuring that the self-regulator remains independent and effective. I should be grateful if the Minister would confirm, when he responds, that the Government’s intention remains that of ensuring that the interests of the victims are paramount and that the Government will introduce a Leveson-compliant independent complaints system for the press.

We believe that the parliamentary charter, the one put before the House of Commons in March 2013 by the Prime Minister, with the support of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and which was approved overwhelmingly by both Houses of Parliament, should have been submitted for consideration at the Privy Council meeting tomorrow. We regret that we will not be going to that meeting.

There has been too much delay. However, I accept that, given that we now know that the committee of the Privy Council will be unable to recommend the press’s proposal for a royal charter, there is at least a case for using the time available before the special meeting of the Privy Council on 30 October to finalise the original charter. There are, in fact, concerns from the regional press and there is, as has been mentioned, a Scottish dimension. There may, indeed, be merit in looking at the editors’ code.

However, I should be grateful if the Minister could confirm to your Lordship’s House the process that I understand that the representatives of the Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour parties have agreed will be followed to finalise the charter, and if he could also confirm that we will have absolute transparency of the process from herein. Confidence has already been shaken by the time and effort given to the press proposals and we now know that some drafting changes are being proposed to the original wording.

Can he therefore confirm: that following discussions on possible improvements to the March 2013 charter, the Secretary of State will place before the House the final version of the charter, if it has been agreed by all three parties, before the end of this week; that if the three party leaders cannot agree on changes to improve the charter of 18 March by the end of this week, then that original charter, as agreed by both Houses of Parliament, will not be changed; and that only a version of the 18 March charter agreed by all three party leaders will be the one put forward to the Privy Council at its special meeting on 30 October?

Does the Minister agree with me that the most important thing is for us to get an agreed version of the parliamentary charter sealed, to get a recognition panel established, and for a regulator to be set up? We must ensure that there will be a fair and effective complaints system independent of the press and independent of politicians.

We must not miss this historic opportunity for reform. We must ensure that what the press did to the Dowlers, the McCanns, to Abigail Witchalls’ family and to others, who suffered so terribly, can never happen again. As the Prime Minister said to the Leveson inquiry, “that’s the test of all of this. It’s not: do the politicians and press feel happy with what we get? It is: are we protecting people who have been caught up and absolutely thrown to the wolves”. So let us have no further delay. Parliament has decided; let us get on and implement Leveson.