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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of OFCOM's recommendation in July 2021 that the accessibility of on-demand services should become a legal requirement.

The Government recognises that as part of a digitally inclusive society, television content should be accessible for all UK audiences regardless of which platform is used to view that content. As viewing habits continue to shift from linear to on demand, the Government is committed to seeing an improvement in the provision of access services for video-on-demand (VoD).

The Government is giving careful consideration to Ofcom’s latest recommendations on how accessibility requirements can be extended to on demand services and will set out next steps in due course.