Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Rejected
Expand the Data Bill's solicitation clause to criminalise all image-based abuse offences.
Recommendation
The law on solicitation was unclear, incomplete and open to misinterpretation by law enforcement agencies and others. We welcome the Government’s proposals to introduce a specific offence of solicitation for synthetic content via an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill. We urge the Government to expand this clause to include all image-based abuse offences, maintaining a focus on criminalising the person in the UK soliciting the image, regardless of the jurisdiction and identity of the provider. (Recommendation, Paragraph 65)
Government Response Summary
The government rejects expanding the solicitation offence to all image-based abuse, stating that the Serious Crime Act 2007 already covers encouraging or assisting offences in England or Wales. The new Data Bill offence specifically targets requests for synthetic content to creators abroad, where a legal gap was identified, and the government has not seen evidence to justify a broader expansion.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
Reject Where someone encourages or assists the commission of an offence which they anticipate might take place in England or Wales, such as taking or sharing intimate images, this is already an offence under provisions in the Serious Crime Act 2007, no matter where they are located. The offence of “requesting the creation of a purported intimate image without consent” is being introduced through the Data (Use and Access) Bill in response to clear evidence that individuals in England and Wales are requesting, often from creators abroad, the creation of intimate images without the consent of the person in the image. Such requests to creators abroad would only constitute an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007 in very specific circumstances. We have not seen evidence of similar conduct (i.e. requests to people abroad for them to carry out the relevant behaviour) in relation to other intimate image offences (taking or recording intimate images, or sharing intimate images etc), and neither was this something that the Law Commission highlighted as an issue in their recent report on intimate image abuse. We would welcome sight of any evidence of that behaviour to assist us in establishing whether further change in the law is needed.