Consultation on The draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) (No.2) Regulations 2025
Consultation description
1. Introduction
The Foreign State Influence (FSI) regime prevents foreign states from being able - directly or indirectly - to control or influence the policy of UK newspapers and news periodicals. The FSI regime came into force in May 2024 but took effect from 13 March 2024
On 15 May 2025, the government published its response to the consultation on exceptions to the FSI regime. The government announced that exceptions would allow sovereign wealth funds and other state-owned investors (SOIs) to hold up to 15% of shares or voting rights in UK newspapers and news magazines . The government believes a 15% threshold balances the need to protect UK newspapers and news periodicals from foreign state interference with legitimate concerns raised during the consultation regarding the effect of the thresholds proposed by the previous government on future investment in newspaper enterprises. The government also decided to implement exceptions proposed by the previous government for associated persons which would allow them to hold up to 0.1% of shares or voting rights and to hold shares to via retail investment products.
The draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025, which amends Part 3 and Schedule 6B and of the Enterprise Act 2002, was laid by the government on 15 May and is currently being considered by Parliament.
This consultation seeks views on further changes to the Enterprise Act 2002 (as it will be amended by the draft regulations before Parliament) in order to clarify the scope of the exceptions and to ensure the overall regime works more effectively.