Media Mergers: Legislation

Stephanie Peacock Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)]

As the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport set out in her written statement on 15 May:

“This Government are committed to a pluralistic media landscape, where citizens are able to access information from a range of sources in order to form opinions”—[Official Report, 15 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 16WS.]—

while ensuring that foreign states are not able to own, control or influence the policy of UK newspapers or news periodicals. The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025 will permit foreign state-owned investors to hold up to 15% of shares and voting rights in a UK newspaper enterprise, as long as they are passive investors with no rights or ability to appoint directors or other company officers or to exercise direct or indirect influence over the newspaper’s policies. The changes balance the need to protect our press from foreign state influence with the need to allow newspaper groups the flexibility to attract inward investment from a broad range of sources that do not present a risk to their editorial and operational independence.

We have noted the concerns raised across Parliament that the regulations do not fully deal with the risk of multiple state-owned investors acting on behalf of different states, each being able to hold up to 15%. Although remote, this scenario is not entirely theoretical. Concern was also raised regarding the Government’s ability to review all relevant cases.

On 18 June, I gave a commitment in Parliament to address these concerns, so today we have published for consultation a further set of draft regulations to amend the Enterprise Act 2002. The consultation will launch today and will be open for eight weeks until 18 September. Following this consultation, the Government will lay, in draft, a second statutory instrument to make the necessary changes to the legislation later in the autumn.

[HCWS828]