It is our job in this House to persuade the victims that what is now in prospect is a different regime that would have the necessary teeth to prevent the kind of abuses they suffered. I believe that that is the case, and that we have a duty to get that message across to them.
Let me take us back to the report our Select Committee produced in 2010. We clearly said that we needed a new body, which needed to have
“the ability to impose a financial penalty”
when the press had failed, and to have a responsibility
“for upholding press standards generally”—
things that the Press Complaints Commission was never equipped to do. We went on to say in that unanimous report of the Select Committee two years ago:
“We do not accept the argument that this would require statutory backing, if the industry is sincere about effective self-regulation it can establish the necessary regime independently.”
Earlier this year, I chaired another Committee, a Joint Committee of both Houses on privacy and injunctions. Again, we looked at these matters in some detail. That body, too, reached a conclusion that
“the current system of self-regulation is broken and needs fixing.”
Again, that Committee recommended a new independent body with stronger powers. The report went on to say —this was supported by Labour members of the Committee —that
“should the industry fail to establish an independent regulator which commands public confidence, the Government should seriously consider establishing some form of statutory oversight”,
but it went on:
“At this stage we do not recommend statutory backing for the new regulator.”