Background
4.The Government’s Coalition Agreement gave a commitment to review the law of defamation, and on 9 July 2010 the Government announced its intention to publish a draft Defamation Bill. The Draft Defamation Bill (Cm 8020) was published for full public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny on 15 March 2011.
5.The public consultation closed on 10 June 2011. The Ministry of Justice received 129 responses from a range of interested parties. A comprehensive summary of the responses received was published on 24 November 2011 (Draft Defamation Bill Summary of Responses to Consultation CP(R) 3/11). In addition to the Government consultation, pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill was undertaken by a Parliamentary Joint Committee. The committee held oral evidence sessions between April and July 2011 and its final report was published on 19 October 2011 (The Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill Report Session 2010-2012, HL 203, HC 930-I).
6.The Government response to the Joint Committee’s report was published on 29 February 2012 (The Government’s Response to the Report of the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill Cm 8295) and set out the Government’s conclusions including on certain matters raised in the public consultation but not specifically addressed in the Committee’s report.
