Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on providing small service providers with a mechanism to obtain a specific, binding assessment of whether an individual proposed feature would bring their service into a higher risk category under the Online Safety Act 2023, in addition to Ofcom's general published guidance.

The Government and Ofcom regularly engage on implementation of the Online Safety Act. The Act requires Ofcom to publish codes of practice, guidance and risk assessment resources that enable services of different sizes to understand what is expected of them under their duties. Ofcom has published material to help providers assess how the design and functionality of their services may affect risk and compliance

Ofcom is the independent regulator for online safety. Operational decisions about whether to provide any additional case-specific compliance support or advisory mechanisms to service providers are matters for Ofcom.