Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 5
4th Report – Tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse
Published 5 Mar 2025
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Ofcom’s current enforcement powers, while welcome, are far too slow and not designed to help individual victims get abusive images of themselves on non-compliant websites taken down or have access to them restricted. The duties under the regulatory regime created by the Online Safety Act are a good start. However, further steps are required to effectively tackle the threat posed by NCII at an individual level, particularly where content is hosted overseas. (Conclusion, Paragraph 48) 52
From: Women and Equalities Committee, 4th Report – Tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse (HC 336), 5 March 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 May 2025 (deadline 5 May 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government gives a mixed response, rejecting a majority of the recommendations while accepting some in full or in part and pointing to existing provisions and the forthcoming VAWG Strategy.
- On the Revenge Porn Helpline, it records "Partial acceptance" and is providing £300,000 for 2025/26 (up from £210,000), with funding beyond that "determined through the Spring Spending Review".
- It rejects bringing online sexual offences and NCII within the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, saying this would "fundamentally alter the purpose of the Scheme".
- It rejects a statutory civil process, citing "little evidence" about the British Columbia model and overlap with existing routes, but says it "will consider this further" in developing the VAWG Strategy.
- It accepts the recommendation on nudification apps, saying it is "actively looking at options" and "will update the Committee on this in due course".