Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: motion relating to Lords Amendment 38

MPs voted 256 to 150 on 15 April 2026 to reject Lords Amendment 38 to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, backing the government's motion to disagree with the Lords and substitute its own alternative provisions in lieu. The amendment, tabled in the Lords by Lord Nash, would have delayed children's access to certain harmful social media services until the age of 16. The government opposed the Lords' wording while proposing its own alternative amendments, meaning the question before MPs was whether to insist on the Commons' earlier rejection of the Lords' text and replace it with the government's own approach. The vote has immediate consequences for how children's online safety is regulated through this legislation. Lords Amendment 38 would have placed a statutory age restriction of 16 on access to specified social media services judged to be harmful to children. By voting it down in favour of the government's alternative amendments, the House backed a different legislative route to the same general goal, though opponents argued the government's approach was weaker. The outcome keeps the Bill moving through its final parliamentary stages without the Lords' specific provisions on the age threshold. The division followed sharply partisan lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative Party MPs voted almost entirely in favour, providing 249 of the 256 aye votes. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Plaid Cymru voted unanimously against, totalling 143 of the 150 no votes. Four Green Party MPs voted with the government, while three SNP members also voted aye. One independent MP voted aye and four independents voted no. There were no Conservative or Liberal Democrat MPs recorded in the aye lobby. The vote was one of several held on the same day relating to different Lords amendments on the Bill, with the social media question appearing to draw the sharpest cross-party opposition to the government's position.