Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending time limits for prosecuting summary-only offences involving the taking of intimate images without consent to be brought into line with those for prosecuting the creation and solicitation of intimate images.

We have tabled a Government amendment to the offence of creating a purported intimate image at clause 135 of the Data (Use and Access) Bill. This will extend the time limit in a similar way to the offence at section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, ensuring that perpetrators can be prosecuted for creating an intimate image deepfake without consent, even if it only comes to light more than six months after its creation.

The Women and Equalities Committee has recommended an extension of the time limit for the prosecution of other existing and proposed intimate image offences, and we are carefully reviewing their recommendations.