Malicious Communications Act 1988
(asked on 10th October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the enforcement of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
Answered by
Kanishka Narayan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act introduced a number of communication offences, which were commenced in January 2024, including the false and threatening communications offences. The new communications offences have replaced the equivalent offences in the Malicious Communications Act 1988. In the January to December 2024 period, there were 14 convictions under the false communications offence and 294 under the threatening communications offence.