Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 20
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)
The online safety regime is expected to be self-financing, once it is fully operational, with both ongoing costs of the regime and the costs of its set-up covered by fees levied on industry.43 However, Ofcom will not start charging fees until 2026–27 and will not begin recouping the set-up costs until 2027–28, with it taking three to five years for these costs to be fully recovered.44 The start of the fee regime is later than Ofcom originally expected. In June 2023, Ofcom had expected that it would start to recover costs in 2025–26, which was already a year later than originally expected. These delays are due to changes to the timetable and scope of the Bill during its passage through parliament, as well as a recommendation by a parliamentary Committee to introduce additional scrutiny to the legislative process required to introduce the fees.45 Ofcom recognised that it will be a long time before the costs are recovered, but told us that they do not score as public expenditure.46
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.