Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the provisions of the Online Safety Act 2023 for tackling online scam advertisements.

The Online Safety Act lists fraud as priority illegal content, meaning in-scope services including social media and search providers must prevent and minimise fraudulent user-generated content from appearing on their services and swiftly remove it if it does. In-scope user-to-user services must also manage the risk that their service may be used to facilitate fraud offences.

Category 1 and 2A services (including large social media and search providers respectively) will have additional duties to tackle paid-for fraudulent advertising. Ofcom is responsible for designating categorised services and aims to publish the categorisation register in July.