division_name: Policing and Crime Bill &#8212; Inquiry into complaints alleging corrupt relationships between police and newspaper organisations
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c251.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;whether the police received corrupt payments or were otherwise complicit in misconduct&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c251.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;When I set up this inquiry, I also said that there would be a second part to investigate wrongdoing in the press and the police, including the conduct of the first police investigation.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-11-29">29 November</phrase> 2012; Vol. 554, c. 446.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c253.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;we will strengthen victims&#8217; rights further, with a new Victims&#8217; Law that will enshrine key rights for victims&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c255.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I am frustrated that the maximum sentence...is five years. I would, if I could, give you longer.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c261.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;broke into my house one night&#8230;all the knives in the knife stand were gone&#8230;I was sure I was going to die.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c263.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I believe in a free press but I also believe in a responsible press. Sadly, the newspapers are becoming increasingly paranoid about what they see as an attack on them and are refusing to accept the recommendation of the latest inquiry under Lord Justice Leveson that an independent regulator be established. Leveson was set up after an appalling series of intrusions into the private lives of people, which included phone hacking on an industrial scale.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c263.5/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It is hard for those who have not experienced an assault by the media to appreciate the level of distress it causes. I know because some 30 years ago, together with my then colleague Neil Hamilton, I had to sue the BBC Panorama programme for libel&#8212;which we won&#8221;&#8212;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c263.5/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;but at the risk of bankruptcy (and loss of our seats in Parliament) if we lost.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c263.5/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Since 1945, there have been no less than 5 Royal Commissions and enquiries to secure a better and cheaper form of justice for those maligned by powerful media barons.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c264.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Time and again, reports threatened new laws if the industry failed to sort itself out, time and again the industry failed. In his 1993 report, Sir David Calcutt, QC said of the then regulator, the Press Complaints Commission: &#8216;It is not...an effective regulator of the press...It is, in essence, a body set up by the industry, financed by the industry, dominated by the industry, and operating a code of practice devised by the industry and which is over-favourable to the industry&#8217;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c264.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">In 2012, Leveson recommended that newspapers should continue to be self-regulated and that the Government should have no power over what they publish. However, he also proposed a new press standards body created by the industry with a new code of conduct. The new self-regulatory body should be underpinned by a law to provide for a process to recognise the new body and ensure it meets certain requirements. It should also enshrine in law a legal duty to protect the freedom of the press and to &#8216;provide a fair, quick and inexpensive arbitration service to deal with any civil complaints about its members&#8217; publications&#8217;. Ofcom should act in a verification role to ensure independence and effectiveness.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c268.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;take steps to ensure that victims of crime&#8230;have access to financial compensation from public funds for any detriment arising from the criminal case concerned&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c269.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c269.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 299, Noes 196.</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c269.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">Votes cast by Members for constituencies in England and Wales:<br/>Ayes 296, Noes 190.</p>