MP for Charnwood at the time of giving evidence, Dorrell had been responsible for media policy and regulation as heritage secretary in the 1990s, when the Conservative Government decided to do nothing with the Calcutt suggestions for press reforms. Dorrell told the Inquiry he thought "recent wrongdoing" such as phone hacking was a failure of management not of regulation and that a powerful ombudsman could work without intervention from the state. Lord Levenson suggested that a statute giving legal recognition to the Ombudsman's views would not amount to parliamentary control.
