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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to create a regulator for online political advertising.

The Government has committed to implementing an imprints regime for digital election material. Our aim is to increase transparency and allow voters to see more information about who has produced election material. We will publish the technical proposals for this regime later this year.

The Cabinet Office is also preparing to launch a consultation on electoral integrity. The scope of this may include increased transparency on digital political advertising; closing loopholes on foreign spending in elections; preventing shell companies from sidestepping current rules on political finance; and action to tackle foreign lobbying. More detail will be brought forward in due course.

In addition, in February this year the Government announced its intention to lead a review of how online advertising is regulated in the UK. This review will identify and address the systematic social and economic challenges that arise from the sector.