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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has commissioned research into trends in the level of public trust in the UK press; and whether she plans to take steps to help increase this trust.

We are aware that news consumption habits are changing and many are increasingly turning to less trustworthy news sources. The Government is committed to supporting a free, sustainable and plural media landscape, as the best way to maintain a shared understanding of facts. Relevant work here includes the next BBC Charter Review, our Local Media Strategy, and the implementation of recent legislation on broadcasting, digital competition and online safety.

We will take an evidence-based approach to all of this work, and any research that we commission on trends in public trust in the UK press will be published in line with Government policy and build on previous relevant research from Ofcom, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and others.