City media lawyers have questioned the timing of the news that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is to be shut down amid the ongoing Leveson inquiry into UK press standards.

The wind-down of the PCC, which has come under intense fire in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, had been widely predicted, although the yesterday's (8 March) announcement has provoked some surprise among media lawyers.

The news that the PCC will move into a "transitional phase" has been questioned by some given that it comes ahead of the findings of the ongoing Leveson inquiry, which are due to be published in October.

Bird & Bird media partner Phil Sherrell said: "No-one will be surprised at the demise of the PCC, but the timing may concern the Leveson Inquiry. Creating a successor to the PCC, even on a temporary basis, while the inquiry is still in progress looks like an attempt to pre-empt the inquiry's findings and avoid the need for further reform."

The PCC, which was first established in 1991, was set up to enable non-statutory self-regulation of the press. However, the stream of revelations of misdemeanours exposed by the phone-hacking scandal have prompted some to call for a move to statutory regulation.

Last October, Beachcroft financial services chairman Lord David Hunt (pictured), the former Conservative cabinet minister, was named as the new chairman of the PCC, succeeding Baroness Peta Buscombe. His appointment saw him set out his intention to review press regulation and work out a structure for the future, saying that there was "a need and a real appetite for change".

Among the many suggestions for regulatory reform include the proposal that a new complaints commission should have a legally binding libel arbitration arm.

Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Ian de Freitas commented: "If the press wish to avoid statutory regulation then they will need to come up with something credible and sufficiently independent very quickly. Sanctions will have to be meaningful and have teeth to prevent the sort of behaviour that has tarnished large sections of the press."

CMS Cameron McKenna media partner Susan Barty added: "The PCC's cards have been numbered since the start of Leveson, if not before. The only surprise is really that it has taken this long. In my experience it was never particularly effective, save in rather limited circumstances, and it always had the reputation of being dominated by press cronies. I never found it particularly effective as a regulator – one of the most important issues being the lack of any effective sanction for transgressions."

An interim body will now be put in place to deal with press complaints while a new set-up is established.

In yesterday's statement announcing the closure, the PCC said: "Following a detailed and lengthy discussion, there was unanimous agreement in principle to the proposal that the PCC should now move into a transitional phase, transferring its assets, liabilities and staff to a new regulatory body designed along the lines proposed by the Reform Committee and endorsed by the industry on 15 December 2011, subject to a number of points that would need to be discussed further."

"The Commission agreed that there should be ongoing dialogue with Lord Justice Leveson's team throughout the proposed transitional phase."