Online Safety

Lord Clement-Jones Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that important question. Where there is evidence of non-compliance, Ofcom has set out that it will move quickly to enforcement, and that action will follow in spring this year, because companies will have had three months to get their positions sorted out—I think that 16 March is the date by which they have to do it. Ofcom will be able to apply fines, including global levies, and it will be able to apply to the courts for business disruption measures and have the flexibility to submit these applications urgently.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

My Lords, the Minister’s response is somewhat baffling. Given the amendment to the Bill as it passed through the House, as a result of the amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, it was quite clear that high-risk smaller platforms would be included in category 1 and bear all the consequences. Yet, despite the Secretary of State’s concerns, which were expressed in a letter last September, the Government have not insisted that Ofcom include those platforms in category 1. What does that mean? Why are the Government not taking proper legal advice and insisting that these smaller, high-risk platforms bear all the duties of category 1 services?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. Category 1, in the way that the Bill was ultimately approved, was for large sites with many users. The possibility remains that this threshold can be amended. It is worth remembering that category 1 imposes two additional duties: a duty that the company must apply its service agreements properly and a duty that users can make it possible for themselves not to see certain things. For many of the small and harmful sites, those things would not apply anyway, because users have gone there deliberately to see what is there, but the full force of the Act applies to those small companies, which is why there is a special task force to make sure that that is applied properly.