Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of the Online Safety Act on people accessing health and sobriety apps.

The Online Safety Act requires user-to-user and search services to take proportionate steps to tackle illegal content – and protect children from harmful content – on their services. The Act does not prevent adults from seeking out legal content including health content, and it is not about specific applications.

The regulator Ofcom will instead look at the systems and processes that in-scope services have in place for tackling illegal content and protecting children. There are also protections against the ‘over removal’ of content, where platforms take down content they should leave on their sites.