Committee publication · Correspondence · 17 September 2025
Letter, dated 15 September 2025, from Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to Mr Speaker
From: Speaker's Conference (2024)
Inquiry: Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates, MPs and elections
Summary
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Kanishka Narayan outlines government policy on online safety and electoral integrity to the Speaker's Conference. The letter defends the Online Safety Act as the primary tool for protecting MPs and candidates from illegal content, harassment and disinformation, while acknowledging gaps on doxxing and pile-on harassment. Government commits to transparency reporting, researcher data access frameworks, and user empowerment features on designated platforms.
Key findings
- Online Safety Act provides protections against illegal mis- and disinformation, harassment, intimidation, abuse, and election-related offences; 14 convictions under False Communications Offence and 294 under Threatening Communications Offence recorded in 2024.
- Government acknowledges CPS evidence that existing harassment legislation may not sufficiently address doxxing and pile-on harassment; working across departments to consider options in response.
- Category 1 designated services will be required to offer adult users optional empowerment features to control exposure to abusive legal content and reduce interaction from non-verified users.
- Ofcom transparency duties will require categorised services to report on illegal content incidence, harmful content to children, and algorithmic systems; Ofcom to publish annual online safety theme reviews.
- Data (Use and Access) Act provisions create new researcher access to data framework; government considering Ofcom's July 2025 report on existing access barriers and will update on next steps.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Kanishka Narayan MP, Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker's Conference, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Defending Democracy Taskforce, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Ofcom
Notable line
“A holistic response which incorporates media literacy, education and the promotion of principles of respectful online debate, regulation of the online environment and effective law enforcement action is essential.”
Key Quotes
“… this is a complex set of issues which regulation alone will not solve. A holistic response which incorporates media literacy, education and the promotion of principles of respectful online debate, regulation of the online environment and effective law enforcement action is essential.”
“… the Online Safety Act (OSA) provides some important protections; addressing illegal content, of which we sadly see too much targeting MPs and candidates”
“While Government has prioritised implementing the OSA as this remains the fastest and most effective way of increasing protections for people online, we will not hesitate to build on the OSA's protections where there is evidence to do so.”
“Government shares the Conference's concern around the unacceptable behaviour of doxxing and pile-on harassment, and we note the evidence of the CPS to the Conference which suggests that existing legislation on harassment may not sufficiently address these harms.”
“… the largest user-to-user services (designated "Category 1 services") services will need to proactively offer optional user empowerment features for adults, enabling them to choose whether or not to see certain categories of legal content, including abusive material that falls below the criminal threshold.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗