Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the extent of the infringement of intellectual property through social media.

The Intellectual Property Office has commissioned independent research into the role that social media plays in directing consumers to physical counterfeit goods.

The research looks at the role that social media plays in the sale and distribution of counterfeited and pirated physical goods from six representative sectors: alcohol, cigarettes, clothing, footwear, perfume and watches. The study attempts to assess the scale, impact and characteristics of infringements by reviewing the current literature and government and industry data, as well as a 3,000 person online consumer survey.

The report will be published shortly, and will be available on the IPO website.