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.

This government is committed to protecting consumers who enter subscription contracts. We have consulted on the implementation of the new subscriptions regime (Consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime - GOV.UK) which included meeting with interested stakeholders. After carefully analysing responses a full Government Response is to be published in due course.

We have engaged with consumer advocacy groups, enforcers and business representatives from across the economy and will continue to do so in advance of the regime’s commencement.

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.

Local media already has a strong propensity to innovate and many local publishers are shifting towards digital subscription models in an effort to secure their financial sustainability. This is an understandable response to the financial pressures faced by the industry and a reflection of the significant costs involved in provision of high quality journalism.

The purpose of the subscriptions regime set out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act is to protect consumers from being trapped in unwanted subscriptions. Government has consulted on how the regime will be implemented, and I have engaged alongside the Minister for Employment Rights and Consumer Protection with representatives from the news media sector and other DCMS stakeholders on this consultation. More broadly, DCMS continues to work closely with the Department for Business and Trade to reflect on the issues raised during the consultation and a Government Response will be published in due course.

The Government has consulted on how refunds should work when consumers exercise their statutory cooling-off rights (Consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime). We are analysing all the responses, including in relation to digital platform fees and views from the printed news sector.

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.