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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to require an independent auditor to assess the steps taken by social media firms to tackle online harms as part of the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.

Ofcom will be named as the independent regulator for online harms in the Online Safety Bill. Ofcom will be responsible for overseeing and enforcing companies’ compliance with the regulatory framework.

Ofcom will be given the powers to fulfil its new statutory duties and functions effectively, including the ability to gather information from companies to understand how they are tackling online harms. As part of this, Ofcom will have the power to require a company to undertake, and pay for, a skilled person report on specific issues of concern, for example where external technical expertise is needed.