Other meanings of Brian Leveson
Law
Sir Brian Henry Leveson (born 22 June 1949) is a retired British judge who served as President of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales from 2012 to 2019. He is best known for chairing the public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press, commonly called the Leveson Inquiry, which reported in 2012.
Brian Leveson was born in Liverpool to a Jewish family and educated at the Liverpool Institute and then at Merton College, Oxford, where he read law. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1970 and practised mainly in criminal law, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1986. He was appointed a Recorder in 1988 and a High Court judge in 2000, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. His early judicial roles included presiding over serious fraud and terrorism trials, and he was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2006.
In July 2011, following the News International phone hacking scandal, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Leveson to chair a public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the press. The inquiry heard evidence from journalists, politicians, and victims of press intrusion, and its report, published in November 2012, recommended a new independent press regulator backed by legislation, though it stopped short of statutory regulation of content. The report led to the creation of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and the Press Recognition Panel, but its statutory underpinning was never fully implemented.
Leveson became President of the Queen's Bench Division in 2012, overseeing the largest of the High Court's three divisions. He also served as the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales from 2010 to 2012 and chaired the Sentencing Council from 2010 to 2012. He retired from the bench in 2019, but continued to sit as a judge in the Court of Appeal on a part-time basis. His later work included chairing the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's investigation into institutional failings, though he stepped down from that role in 2016.
Leveson was a keen cricketer and played for the Lord's Taverners charity team. He also served as a trustee of the Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice Bureau. In 2015, he was appointed to the Privy Council, allowing him to hear appeals from overseas jurisdictions. A notable edge case: his 2012 report explicitly avoided recommending statutory regulation of the press, a decision that disappointed some victims of phone hacking. He also presided over the 2006 trial of the killers of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, a case that highlighted his firm sentencing approach.
Sir Brian Leveson's legacy is closely tied to the press regulation debate, but his broader judicial career spanned serious crime and public inquiries.
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