Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, from any reasonable reading of the Online Safety Act, X either failed completely to carry out a risk assessment in relation to the potential of its Grok AI tool to create harmful content or, if it did so, it did it in such a totally incompetent way that it might as well not have bothered.

I think that this Government are doing exactly the right thing and that we have given Ofcom the powers. I would like to know as soon as possible about Ofcom— well, that would be good but, in parliamentary terms, it can be rather a stretch. But we do need to have a deadline for when we are going to hear from Ofcom on how quickly it is going to do this.

Nobody has referred yet to the victims of this activity. What help and support can we give to those who are being attacked in this way? What advice is being given to them and by whom, so that they can be effectively supported when these devastating images are created?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to raise the extremely important point about victim support and the impact that this has on people. We have seen testimonies and reports of how devastating, degrading and humiliating this experience can be. The Revenge Porn Helpline is doing fantastic work in providing specialist support and help with getting images removed from the internet, and I commend it for that activity.

On the question on the investigation process, the Secretary of State has been clear that she expects an update from Ofcom on next steps as soon as possible and that she expects Ofcom to use its full legal powers. We hope that that will be clear as soon as possible.

Children: Age Verification and Virtual Private Networks

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question. The importance of digital skills and media literacy was highlighted as a recommended area in the curriculum and assessment review, and we will be responding to that. On his point about relationships education, I will have to come back to him.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I commend my Government for the action they are taking on the Online Safety Act. It is a bit rich for the party opposite, who dragged their heels for several years, to talk about the implementation of this. I do not know how many noble Lords here would know how to download a VPN and then choose a country which has no age-verification rules. It is clear that there are teenagers who can do this. Is Ofcom researching this? Is it assessing these risks and will it be bringing forward solutions?

Employment Gap: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and White, Workforce

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Thornton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the contribution to the economy which could result from closing the employment gap between (1) the Black, Asian and minority ethnic, and (2) white, workforce.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Lord Johnson of Lainston) (Con)]

The employment rate gap is closing. Data for the first quarter of 2023 shows an ethnic minority employment rate of 69.4%, which is a record high and an increase of 1.1 percentage points on the same quarter a year ago. In April, we set out to Parliament the excellent progress we have made in delivering our ambitious Inclusive Britain strategy to tackle unjust racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice and the workplace.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. The reward for getting this right and closing the gap between BAME and white employees is huge. Research has shown over many years that this could add billions to the economy. Why is this not a priority for the Treasury, the business community and the Government? It would not only deal with the unfairness for the individuals affected but add hugely to the size of our economy. That is really the point. Please can the Government think big about this and take on board the research from McKinsey and all sorts of places that says that this will grow our economy if we get it right?

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, very much for those comments. It is absolutely right that the expected deficit of underutilisation of all groups in this economy is between £20 billion and £30 billion. I draw attention to the fact that 32 of the 74 measures in Inclusive Britain that we put into place have been achieved or are in motion. A huge amount of work is being done to encourage right entry into workplaces following graduation, entrepreneurship, changes in bank lending policies, fundamental mentoring policies and money being put into scholarship programmes. I completely agree with the noble Baroness’s points. This is very much a focus for the Government, and my Secretary of State, Kemi Badenoch, sees it as one of her core priorities.