Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 10
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for online safety regulation
Published 21 Feb 2024
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Preparedness for online safety regulation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Ofcom itself is only required to consider complaints from organisations about systemic issues arising from a service provider and impacting on online safety. It has no specific powers to take action, or compel regulated service providers to take action, on individual pieces of content or to get providers to offer redress to individual users on a case-by-case basis.16 Ofcom explained that the scale of potentially harmful, online material would make it impossible for it to respond to individual complaints and it must, 8 Q 9 9 Q 42; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 10 C&AG’s Report, para 3 11 Q 4; C&AG’s Report, para 1.8 12 C&AG’s Report, para 1.8, figure 4 13 Qq 4, 6 14 C&AG’s Report, para 1.16 15 Q 26 16 Q 26; C&AG’s Report, para 1.16 10 Preparedness for online safety regulation instead, rely on service providers to have appropriate systems and processes to take action on complaints. It told us that Facebook alone moderates hundreds of thousands of items every hour.17
From: Public Accounts Committee, Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for online safety regulation (HC 73), 21 February 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 3 May 2024 (deadline 21 April 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee's recommendations on codes of practice deadlines, compliance monitoring, the fee regime and evaluation, and disagrees with those on complaint feedback and skills audits.
- On codes of practice, the government agrees and states that Ofcom "is on track" to submit its illegal harms and protection of children Codes to the Secretary of State by 26 April 2025.
- On feedback to complainants, the government disagrees, stating that the Act "does not empower Ofcom to adjudicate on individual complaints"; these should go to the provider.
- On the fee regime, the government agrees. Ofcom will consult publicly in Summer 2024, with the aim of implementing the fees regime in the 2026-27 financial year.
- On skills audits, the government disagrees, stating that both organisations "already have effective workforce planning processes", which fulfil the intent of the recommendation.