My Lords, by way of background, I was a director of one of the major advertising and marketing agencies in the UK. There has been an explosion of VSPs, which need control.
I notice in paragraph 2.10 of the draft Explanatory Memorandum that a second statutory instrument is due to be laid; can the Minister indicate when that may be? Paragraph 6.2 says that there will be another instrument to deal with “deficiencies”; is the Minister in a position to tell us what the deficiencies are?
Paragraph 7.2 says that Ofcom may or may not have power in the future. It is not much of an incentive to Ofcom to invest properly with senior people if it does not know whether it will carry on with this in future. I suggest to Her Majesty’s Government that there should be a clear statement that Ofcom will be the body dealing with this.
There are also the points on protection, rightly raised by my noble friend. Terrorist content is a real problem in this country from a security point of view, as we know—quite often from what appear to be genuine, sympathetic human rights bodies, some of them operating legally, some not quite so legally and some illegally. We really need to focus on that because, as the document says,
“VSP providers are merely responsible for the organisation of content”.
If that is the situation, who on earth will control it, particularly for VSPs that are produced outside either the European Union or here in the UK? In relation to this Bill, certain countries are well known for producing highly controversial and illegal VSPs. There is a big problem there.
I also have some questions about paragraph 7.13, which says that, where Ofcom
“become aware of serious instances of … harm”,
et cetera, it should take strong “enforcement action”; it has never taken much strong enforcement action in the past, so there is a problem there. It also says that Ofcom will give guidance. Where is the guidance? Is it coming soon or not? People are now planning for the spring, and have probably decided what will happen, so we need clarification on that.
In paragraph 14.1, under “Monitoring & review”, the Government should clarify what they really mean. It says that
“legislation relating to VSPs will be repealed and encompassed within the Online Harms regulatory framework.”
When is that likely to happen?
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