Recommendation 20

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