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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the implications for the aims of the Online Harms White Paper of the adoption of new technical standards to bypass the blocking of online content; and if he will make a statement.

As set out in the Online Harms White Paper, the Government will establish a new statutory duty of care to make companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen and enforced by an independent regulator. We are currently consulting on which enforcement powers the regulator should have at its disposal to ensure it can take effective action against companies that breach their legal duty. Alongside this consultation, we continue to work with industry to understand the implications of the changing technologies and to promote approaches that work for the good of all.