Sir Julian Lewis:To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to ensure (a) social media companies and (b) website providers that have been found to have hosted illegal content viewed by people that have subsequently committed serious crimes face financial sanctions.  [25161]

[Due for Answer on 24 January]

ANSWER

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government (Feryal Clark): The Online Safety Act 2023 places duties on social media companies and search services. These include duties to tackle illegal content on their services. These services will need to put systems and processes in place to reduce the risk that users post this illegal content. They will also need to take it down where it does appear. If companies fail to comply with any of these duties, Ofcom has a range of strong enforcement powers, including issuing fines and applying to the court to initiate business disruption measures.