Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the timetable for the Online Safety Bill announced in the Queen's Speech 2021 including for (a) pre-legislative scrutiny, (b) the date on which relevant businesses will be obliged to report their risk assessments to Ofcom and (c) post-legislative scrutiny to assess whether the regime is working.

The Online Safety Bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. It is for Parliament to determine when the Bill will be scrutinised but I hope that the process will be able to start shortly now that the draft Bill has been published. This is a priority for my Department and for the Home Office, however the timetable for introduction is dependent on the wider parliamentary timetable.

The Online Safety Bill will place a duty on Ofcom to carry out a risk assessment of the sector and, as soon as is reasonably practicable, to issue guidance to companies about risk assessments. Companies will then have three months to carry out their risk assessments, unless they agree a longer timetable with Ofcom.

In order to assess the effectiveness of the regulatory framework, the Online Safety Bill provides for a review to be undertaken by the Secretary of State, to be published and laid before Parliament, between 2 and 5 years after the duties on services are commenced.