Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on tackling online hate crime.

Formal negotiation with the internet industry has been led by officials from across Government, primarily within the Cyber-Hate Working Group and latterly within the Internet Sub-Group of the European Commission High Level Group on Hate Crime. Both of these have led to voluntary agreements being drawn up concerning the code of conduct of industry bodies and their response to complaints from members of the public, for example:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/hate_speech_code_of_conduct_en.pdf

The Government's Hate Crime Action Plan, published last July, includes a commitment to bring Ministers from across Whitehall together with industry bodies, victims and academics to discuss challenges and future opportunities to collaborate.