Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that online platforms tackle fraud on their services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act lists fraud as a priority offence, meaning that in-scope services must now prevent and minimise user-generated fraud content from appearing on their platforms, and swiftly remove it if it does.
Services designated by Ofcom as Category 1 and 2A (large user-to-user and large search services respectively) will have additional duties to tackle paid-for fraudulent advertising. Ofcom aims to publish its categorisation register, and to consult on the additional duties for categorised services – including on fraudulent advertising - around July 2026.