Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on tackling violence against women and girls using the Online Safety Act 2023.

Tackling VAWG in all of its forms, including when it takes place online, is a top priority for this Government, and that's why we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve VAWG within a decade.

The misuse of technology to abuse or harm others (including online) has a disproportionate impact on women and children and we know this is a significant and growing issue in the UK and worldwide.

We will go further than before to deliver a cross-Government transformative approach to halve all forms of violence against women and girls, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published next year. In January 2025, the Government introduced new legislation which will make creating sexually explicit 'deepfake' images a criminal offence.

The Online Safety Act designates material relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse as a priority offence. Platforms must put in place systems and processes to minimise and remove this content. The Illegal Harms Codes, laid before Parliament in December and coming into force from 17 March this year, sets out the steps companies must take to meet their duties under the Act to tackle this content."

I regularly meet with Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to discuss these matters.

My officials also engage regularly with DSIT and the Ministry of Justice to identify the most appropriate legislative vehicles to tackle technology-facilitated VAWG.