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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase the number of their grants to Ofcom, following the announcement that it will have increased regulatory responsibilities.

As outlined in the Government’s ‘The Online Harms White Paper - Initial consultation response’, published on 12 February 2020, “The White Paper makes clear that in order to recoup both the implementation costs and running costs of the regulator, the government is considering fees, charges or a levy on companies whose services are in scope. This could fund the full range of the regulator’s activity. The government intends the new regulator to become cost neutral to the public sector.” The Government is carrying out extensive analysis on potential funding options taking Ofcom’s existing funding structure into consideration. Full details on the funding mechanism for the Online Harms regulatory regime will be set out in due course.