Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will commission research on the potential impact of media reporting on suspects under criminal investigation who have not been charged on the (a) mental health and (b) wellbeing of such individuals.

Media reporting on suspects who have not been charged is constrained by the law of contempt, by revised College of Policing guidance on when it is appropriate for the police to name suspects, and by the reasonable expectation, established by past legal action, that suspects will not be identified.

DCMS has no current plans to commission research on the potential impact on the mental health and wellbeing of suspects under criminal investigation.