The government has rejected a proposed law change which would have made it unlawful for the identity of an arrested person to be published before they were charged with an offence.

Speaking in the House of Lords debate on Second Reading of the Anonymity (Arrested Persons) Bill tabled by Lord Paddick, Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said the government was “not yet persuaded that legislating in this instance would be a necessary or proportionate.”

The Bill was brought after the BBC announced that it would not be appealing the judgment in the Sir Cliff Richard case, after it was found to have breached the singer’s privacy rights when it reported he was under investigation for an alleged historical child sex abuse claim.

Sir Cliff was never arrested or charged with any offence and the court ruled it was unlawful to have even named him as a suspect.

Speaking in the debate last week, Baroness Williams, pictured, said: “The government are committed to protecting the freedom of the press and recognise that a vibrant and free press plays such a valuable role in our cultural and democratic life. How lucky we are to have our free press. We want to make sure that it continues, with high journalistic standards and with work absolutely in the public interest.

“The Bill would replace this administrative system with a requirement for the chief constable to apply to a Crown Court judge for a direction that reporting restrictions be lifted. This risks adding potentially dangerous delay in fast-moving investigations as well as placing additional burdens on our courts.”

She added: “It is not clear that this is necessary. On the contrary, the existing arrangements for the police seem to strike a sensible balance.

“There are precedents for placing restrictions on the freedom of the press to report the identities of, for example, victims of sexual offences, but restricting press freedom is a serious matter and we are not yet persuaded that legislating in this instance would be a necessary or proportionate response to the perceived problem.”