Lord Justice Leveson to give evidence to MPs on 24 July Lord Justice Leveson is to be questioned by a Commons select committee on 24 July. Lord Justice Leveson has agreed to be grilled by MPs about his inquiry into press ethics on 24 July. He has accepted the invitation to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee to discuss his inquiry, as controversy over his decision not to investigate alleged phone hacking by groups other than journalists grows. This will be the first time Leveson has spoken about his four-volume report and conclusions on the future of press regulation since it was issued on November 30 last year. Up to now he has maintained that his report spoke for itself and he did not have to explain matters any further. However, with the future of press regulation still not agreed after seven months, and with recent allegations that evidence about the behaviour of the police and investigation agencies was ignored by the inquiry, MPs on the committee are keen to hear from him. One MP on the committee said Leveson had never refused to appear, but it was made clear during discussions with the lord chief justice that there were "difficulties and sensitivities related to judges getting involved in political matters". The committee responded that it wanted to quiz Leveson in his capacity as the inquiry chairman not as a judge and then issued a formal invitation. "First of all, he has said nothing since the report came out and the debate about the future of press regulation is still ongoing," said Paul Farrelly, a Labour MP and member of the committee. "Secondly, the royal charter as a mechanism did not appear at all in his report, we think it germane to ask him what he thinks of that. There are also two other royal charters and we think it would be quite right to know what he thought of the differences and whether they met with his objectives." It is understood Leveson was initially invited to appear on 23 July, but said he was unavailable on that date but free the following day. His appearance will inject fresh impetus into the debate over press regulation and will almost certainly mean that David Cameron will not concede to a demand by Hacked Off to submit the all-party royal charter deal on Leveson to the privy council on 10 July. Leveson may also face questions over why he decided to ignore a report alleging corruption among police and private investigators that was passed to his inquiry from the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The SOCA report revealed that other industries including law firms, telecoms companies and financial services used private investigators that routinely used "blaggging" and hacking to get private data on targets.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 11:40:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015