Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will hold discussions with the Leader of the House on making parliamentary time available for scrutiny of Ofcom’s guidance on age verification and age assurance before publication of a government response.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Parliamentary scheduling is a matter for the Business Managers.
The government is focused on implementing the Online Safety Act as quickly as possible. Ofcom published its consultation on draft guidance about use of age assurance for sites displaying pornographic content on 5 December 2023, and this was open for responses until 5 March 2024. The Act requires that Ofcom consult with the Secretary of State before producing this guidance.
For the broader duties under the Act about protecting children from harmful content, we expect Ofcom to publish its draft codes of practice later in the Spring. The Act requires that codes of practice are laid in both Houses before coming into force.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much Ofcom has spent to implement the Online Safety Act 2023; and how many staff have been (a) hired by and (b) seconded to Ofcom for implementation of that Act.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As published in the NAO’s report on preparedness for online safety, Ofcom spent £2.7m in 2020-21, £14.7m in 2021-22, £38.2m in 2022-23 and their spend in 2023-24 is to be confirmed, noting the Government-set spending cap is £47m. This report can be found here: www.nao.org.uk/reports/preparedness-for-online-safety-regulation/
The Government’s intention is that the regulation of online safety will become cost neutral to the exchequer. The Online Safety Act 2023 allows Ofcom to raise the required income to cover the costs of running the online safety regime, including set up costs, through industry fees.
As of March 2024, there are 202 colleagues in Ofcom’s Online Safety Directorate. Beyond the Online Safety Directorate, there are employees within Ofcom's Legal and Enforcement, Research and Analytics, Strategy and Research, and Corporate groups that also work full time on Ofcom's online safety work.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
o ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of mobile connectivity in rural areas.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Almost 93% of the UK benefits from good quality 4G coverage from at least one mobile network operator, but we know more needs to be done in rural areas.
Our £1bn Shared Rural Network agreement with industry, will increase coverage to 95% by the end of 2025, supporting rural businesses and communities.
Ofcom is also looking at the accuracy of coverage reporting to ensure it better reflects people’s experiences over coverage.