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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Online Safety Bill will protect local councillors and council employees at all levels of local government from online abuse.

The Online Safety Bill will protect all users, including local councillors and council employees, from abuse online.

Services in scope of the Bill will need to ensure that illegal content in scope is removed swiftly and that the risk of it appearing and spreading is minimised by effective systems. Category one services must be clear how they address priority content that is harmful to adults, and enforce their terms of service consistently. Priority categories of content which are harmful to adults and children will be set out in secondary legislation and are likely to include some types of online abuse and harassment.

Ofcom will have a suite of enforcement powers available to use against companies who fail their duties. These powers include fines for companies of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying annual global turnover, and business disruption measures.