Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 85
The responsibilities of multiple regulators in the digital space interlock with the Electoral Commission’s role...
Recommendation
The responsibilities of multiple regulators in the digital space interlock with the Electoral Commission’s role to regulate money spent on political campaigning. The Government’s draft Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission encourages cooperation between regulators to avoid duplication but does not provide any detail on how this can be achieved. We recommend the Government puts forward proposals and if necessary legislates through the Online Safety Bill to enable digital regulators, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, Ofcom, the Electoral Commission and Advertising Standards Authority, to formally share appropriate levels of information to support their regulatory duties and create a coherent regulatory system. We recommend that Ofcom, as the prospective online safety regulator, should be given a power to set minimum standards for advert libraries and advert labelling to provide maximum transparency and consistency across these databases.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that cooperation between regulators is important and highlights existing information-sharing powers and roundtables, but does not propose mandating advert libraries or criteria for them.
Paragraph Reference:
85
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
. Cooperation between national regulatory authorities is essential to ensuring consistency, clarity and protection for UK users as well as industry in the digital space. The Government agrees that it is important that the Electoral Commission can co-operate with other regulators when it comes to the enforcement of political finance rules. The Electoral Commission has said that it already has a power to share information that relates to ensuring compliance with electoral law with relevant bodies; and where it has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person has committed an offence or contravened any restriction or other requirement under PPERA, it can compel the provision from any person of documents, information or explanations that the Commission reasonably requires to investigate. Further, the Commission has said that it can also share information relating to breaches of data protection with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).7 The Government welcomes the steps taken by the Electoral Commission to increase regulatory dialogue and cooperation with other relevant regulators, such as the ICO and Ofcom, on matters related to political advertising. The Government remains committed to ensuring effective cooperation between the Electoral Commission and other regulators in the digital space and continues to keep the need for any additional powers for information sharing under review. The Government is also legislating via the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill to enhance data sharing between Companies House and public authorities, including the Electoral Commission. The Government’s intention is to ensure that Ofcom has the powers it needs as the online regulator. Ofcom has strong existing relationships with other regulators, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, including through the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF). This includes work to ensure join-up across new regulatory regimes, such as the forthcoming publication of a joint statement on the interactions between the online safety and privacy regimes. The DRCF, in turn, engages comprehensively with other regulators, including the Electoral Commission, via quarterly roundtables to ensure a coherent regulatory approach. Where appropriate and proportionate, the Government has used legislative measures to strengthen cooperation between regulators. This is something we are doing in the Online Safety Bill by ensuring Ofcom can effectively share information with other regulators and by requiring Ofcom to consult with the ICO on codes of practice and when issuing guidance that could have a privacy impact. On the regulation of political advertising, the Government welcomes the steps taken by social media companies to create “advert libraries” and institute advert labelling on political advertising. We do not currently propose mandating advert libraries or the criteria applying to such libraries when existing initiatives already provide the public with transparency in this area. 7 Electoral Commission, Report – ‘Digital campaigning – increasing transparency for voters’, 1 June 2018 (last accessed: 9 January 2023)