Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Online Advertising Taskforce action plan, published on 30 November 2023, what her Department's expected timeline is to undertake research on online users’ experiences of advertising harms.

In the Government response to the Online Advertising Programme consultation, published in July 2023, we committed to bringing forward online advertising legislation when Parliamentary time allows. We will consult further on the details of proposed regulation in due course.

The Online Advertising Taskforce, which brings together industry and government to drive non-legislative action, met for the first time in the same month and will run for at least a year. Taskforce members are working to progress commitments in its action plan, including building the evidence base and promoting and expanding industry initiatives and good practice. As outlined in the action plan, the Taskforce will publish a progress report following the end of the 12-month period.

To support the aims of the Online Advertising Programme and Taskforce to improve the evidence base around illegal advertising harms, the Government has also commissioned research to understand the prevalence and range of online users’ experiences of these, as well as other advertising harms. We expect that it will be completed by the end of this year.