Social Media: Substances Unfit for Human Consumption

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important question. The landscape here includes action by law enforcement agencies, such as that under the fraud strategy. It involves the MHRA and Ofcom, and indeed the ASA and trading standards. These activities are co-ordinated across government to make sure that there is effective action. On the specific resources available to trading standards, I will take that question back to the department and come back to him.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, do we not need effective legislation and a regulator that will actually do the job? Which one is failing us—the regulator or the legislation?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As we discussed a little earlier this week in the House, advances are being made in the regulation in the measures that we are bringing forward to restrict social media companies in advertising or providing services to under-16s. There are the consultations that I mentioned by the OPSS on product safety, which go hand in hand with the importance of enforcement. The Secretary of State has written to Ofcom stressing the importance of that body enforcing effectively and prioritising, and has requested an enforcement strategy and framework to be available, so that that can be scrutinised by Parliament.