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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the time taken to investigate advertisements by the Advertising Standards Agency.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising in the UK across traditional forms of media (print, radio, TV) and online and is independent of the Government.

The process the ASA follows when handling complaints is publicly available on its website, alongside its performance data in responding to complaints over the year, and expected timelines relating to more and less complex cases.

It explains that straightforward issues (around 80% of cases) can be resolved in a number of days, but that more complex issues where the advertiser is contacted generally take longer. A small number of the most complex cases can take up to six months to resolve, particularly when appointing independent experts to help assess evidence.