Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to tackle websites which (a) promote and (b) normalise suicide.

Under the Online Safety Act, websites that allow user-generated content must proactively prevent all users from encountering illegal suicide content, and children of all ages from encountering legal content which encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide.

Last year, the Secretary of State wrote to Ofcom to ask about its plans to tackle suicide forums which breach their obligations under the Online Safety Act. The regulator confirmed it stands ready to move to rapid enforcement action, where necessary.

The Act also provides search services with targeted duties to minimise the risk of all users encountering illegal search content either in or via search results.