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Written question asked by John Cooper (Conservative) on Tuesday, 24 March 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 March 2026. It was answered by Kate Dearden (Labour) on Wednesday, 1 April 2026 on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade.

Local Press: Subscriptions

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Policy paper entitled Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan of 17 March 2026, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of a 14-day cooling-off period on the effectiveness of local and regional news publishers in adopting a digital-first and sustainable future.

Answer

The government is committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK. We have launched a Local Media Action Plan to help local newsrooms across the country innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news.

We have consulted on how the subscriptions regime will be implemented and Ministers and officials have engaged with representatives from the news media sector. We are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to reflect on the issues raised and a Government Response will be published in due course.

The impact assessment for the subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together, the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net direct cost to businesses is £171m per year.

Sector-specific analysis has not been conducted.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
123450
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Contracts Digital technology Local press Subscriptions
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk