By Tony O’Reilly-
The independent Jeffrey Review, conducted by former senior civil servant Sir Bill Jeffrey, examined IPSO’s effectiveness and the way it handles complaints. While the review was broadly positive about IPSO’s regulatory impact, it identified areas where the organisation could improve, including communication with complainants. One of the difficulties identified was the challenge of explaining to complainants what would happen to their complaint and how long they should expect the process to take. The review recommended that IPSO introduce published targets for the time taken to conclude investigations, together with reporting on those times and explanations of the factors that affected the duration of individual cases. Importantly, IPSO accepted the recommendation. In its implementation response to that review, the regulator said it had begun publishing information on complaint-handling times and was considering developing overall target timings to serve as a guide to members of the public.
At the time of the review PSO chair Lord (Edward) Faulks KC said: “The Jeffrey Review reaffirmed the benefits of IPSO’s independence as a regulator and the strength of its processes, but also identified opportunities where we could build on the experience that we have developed in regulating the press since we were established in 2014.
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“This was an important review of IPSO’s governance and operations, and we have taken time to consider its proposals seriously and in detail. We remain hugely grateful to Sir Bill for the care and attention with which he and his team conducted this review.” Equally<,IPSO chief executive Charlotte Dewar said: “This independent external review was an important check on our approach as a regulator. The thorough examination of our governance, funding and operations found that IPSO was operating independently and had influenced the industry for the better. We are now pleased to be able to publish an update on our implementation of the recommendations and full response on some of the broader issues raised in relation to IPSO’s governance arrangements.
“Sir Bill’s review was thorough and considered. We thank him for him insight and wisdom.
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That makes the current position over the Arday complaints worthy of examination. It would be wrong to suggest that the Jeffrey Review required IPSO to give every complainant a fixed deadline. It did not .Indeed, the review recognised the inherent difficulty of imposing rigid deadlines on a complaints system dealing with cases of widely varying complexity. Some investigations involve multiple publications, extensive documentation, disputed evidence and prolonged exchanges between complainants and newspapers. There can also be perfectly legitimate reasons for delay .Publishers may need time to respond. Complainants may provide additional evidence. New issues can emerge during an investigation. IPSO may need to seek clarification from several parties before a Complaints Committee can reach a properly informed decision.
In cases involving potentially serious reputational consequences, getting the decision right has to take priority over getting it out quickly. That provides IPSO with a credible argument against an artificial deadline. But it does not necessarily justify providing no meaningful indication of timescale at all. There is a world of difference between telling a complainant, “We will decide this by a particular date,” and saying, “We currently expect this process to take several months, although that estimate may change if further evidence or representations are required.” The latter would not compromise the regulator’s independence or its ability to conduct a thorough investigation. It would simply give the complainant a reasonable understanding of what lies ahead. That is particularly relevant because IPSO’s own published information already acknowledges that investigations can take months. Its complaints guidance says that an investigated complaint reaching the Complaints Committee can typically take between three and six months, with some cases taking longer depending on complexity.
The organisation therefore already recognises that complainants benefit from having some understanding of the likely duration of the process. The Jeffrey Review went further by examining the experiences of people who had actually used the system. Some complainants described investigations as excessively long and expressed frustration about periods when they were waiting for responses or updates. That is not simply an administrative inconvenience. A complaints mechanism is supposed to provide a route to accountability. If the people using it do not know whether their complaint is progressing, awaiting evidence, under consideration or simply delayed, confidence in the system can begin to erode. IPSO’s own commitments to transparency make this particularly significant.
The press regulator has itself said on its website that it wants its regulatory work to be accessible and accountable. It also provides defined timescales for various stages of the complaints process, demonstrating that it is capable of establishing procedural expectations without compromising the substance of its investigations. The question therefore becomes a narrower and more legitimate one.If IPSO accepts the principle identified by the Jeffrey Review that complainants should receive clearer information about how long investigations are likely to take, what prevents it from providing an indicative timescale in the Arday case?That is not a demand for a predetermined finding. nor is it an attempt to influence the Complaints Committee. It does not require IPSO to disclose confidential evidence or details of its investigation. Nor does it require the regulator to sacrifice fairness for speed. It is simply a request for procedural clarity. However, , a reason to be cautious about making the argument too strongly. The refusal to provide an indicative timescale sits uneasily with the spirit of the Jeffrey Review and raises legitimate questions about how its recommendations are being applied in practice .The Arday complaints may themselves present complications which are not publicly known. If they involve several publications, numerous articles, complex factual disputes or evidence that requires detailed examination, IPSO may have good reasons for avoiding a precise timetable. But if that is the explanation, it should be capable of being communicated clearly.
IPSO could, for example, say that the case is expected to take several months but that no firm date can be given because the timetable depends upon representations from the parties and the volume of evidence. Such an answer would arguably satisfy both sides of the argument: thoroughness would be protected while transparency would be improved. What appears harder to justify is a completely open-ended process with no indication of when the complainants might expect the next substantive stage. The stakes make the issue more than procedural. Complaints involving a prominent academic and matters of public interest can attract significant attention. The longer a regulatory process continues without explanation, the greater the possibility that uncertainty will generate speculation. That is not a reason to rush IPSO. If anything, sensitive complaints demand careful handling, but careful handling and timely communication are not mutually exclusive. The strongest professional position, therefore, is not that IPSO should be placed under a stopwatch.
Rather, it is that the regulator should provide an indicative timetable, regular updates and an explanation whenever the expected timetable changes. That approach would be consistent with the central concern identified by the Jeffrey Review: that complainants should have a clearer understanding of what happens to their complaints and how long the process is likely to take. The Arday case therefore presents IPSO with a test of its own commitment to transparency. The regulator has a legitimate right to say that complex investigations cannot be reduced to arbitrary deadlines. Complainants have an equally legitimate right to ask when they might reasonably expect an answer. The issue is ultimately not whether IPSO can guarantee a date. It is whether it can explain why it cannot provide even an informed estimate.
And that is where the Jeffrey Review becomes difficult to ignore. IPSO accepted the principle that greater transparency about complaint-handling times was necessary. It has published general information about how long investigations can take. It has acknowledged the importance of keeping complainants informed. The question now is whether those principles should apply when a real complainant asks the regulator the most basic question of all. How long should I expect to wait? This is the question The Eye of Media asked on behalf of the public. If IPSO cannot answer that question in the Arday case, it should at least explain why — and why that position is consistent with the lessons it accepted from the Jeffrey Review.
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