Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital
Economy (): The Online Safety Bill is a
vital piece of legislation, and this Government is committed to
ensuring that it does more to protect children and ensure that
any provisions for adults consider the importance of free speech.
On 29 November, the DCMS Secretary of State issued a Written
Ministerial Statement (WMS) setting out a number of policy
changes to achieve this aim.
The approach we are taking has three main aims. We are
strengthening the protections for children in the Bill, ensuring
that adults’ right to legal free speech is protected, and also
creating a genuine system of transparency, accountability and
control to give the British public more choice and power over
their own accounts and experience. The Secretary of State’s WMS
yesterday set out these changes in detail, alongside additional
changes we’re seeking to make.
Given the Bill’s stage of passage, it is not possible to make the
majority of these changes at Report stage, as the amendments
relate to clauses that were debated on the first day of Report.
Therefore, as mentioned in the Secretary of State’s WMS of 29
November, the Government intends to return a limited number of
clauses to a Public Bill Committee. This process would allow the
proposed changes to go through robust and thorough scrutiny in
the Commons, and would provide for line-by-line scrutiny of the
amendments being made. The recommitted clauses would then come
back to the whole House for debate at a third day of Report
stage. A vote on this recommitment motion will take place
immediately after Report stage on 5 December.
As amendments for consideration at Committee cannot be formally
tabled before that vote has passed, I am therefore setting out
alongside this statement indicative drafting to demonstrate the
amendments we will be tabling should a Committee stage take
place, so that Parliamentary colleagues can consider them in
detail and understand the Government’s intentions with the Bill.
These amendments are substantively final and the policies that
they reflect will not change, the draft amendment paper, attached
as annex A, includes explanatory statements of each amendment.
However, small tweaks to the drafting may be required before the
amendments are formally tabled, to ensure that they are as clear
and effective as possible. Amendments in the paper are based on
the most recent Bill print, which follows amendments at the
Bill’s previous Public Bill Committee stage.
I am acutely aware of, and fully agree with, Parliament’s desire
to see this legislation enacted. I will therefore be seeking to
keep the recommittal process as short as possible within the
bounds of allowing proper consideration of the changes, and
anticipate that should the recommittal process proceed, the Bill
will be passed to the House of Lords for consideration in
January. I intend to work closely with Parliament to ensure that
we are able to get this vital piece of legislation onto the
statute book in this Parliamentary session.
