Written questions by Thompson.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an Online Safety Act fee regime through which the fees charged to individual platforms is equal to the costs to Ofcom for regulating those services.

Companies raising revenue from online services should cover the costs of regulation to keep the online environment safe for users. The Online Safety Act allows Ofcom to charge providers above a revenue threshold a justifiable and proportionate fee.The Secretary of State is considering the contents of Ofcom’s ‘Online Safety – fees and penalties’ consultation, which closes on 9 January 2025. Departmental officials have regular contact with Ofcom regarding respective responsibilities in implementing the fee regime.Parliament will be responsible for approving key aspects of the fee regime including regulations defining Qualifying Worldwide Revenue and the revenue threshold.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the consultation document entitled Online Safety - fees and penalties: Consultation on implementing fees and penalties under the Online Safety Act 2023, published on 23 October 2024, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on the proposed fee regime for companies that (a) within scope of the Online Safety Act but are not categorised and (b) do not monetise their user-generated content.

Companies raising revenue from online services should cover the costs of regulation to keep the online environment safe for users. The Online Safety Act allows Ofcom to charge providers above a revenue threshold a justifiable and proportionate fee.The Secretary of State is considering the contents of Ofcom’s ‘Online Safety – fees and penalties’ consultation, which closes on 9 January 2025. Departmental officials have regular contact with Ofcom regarding respective responsibilities in implementing the fee regime.Parliament will be responsible for approving key aspects of the fee regime including regulations defining Qualifying Worldwide Revenue and the revenue threshold.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the consultation document entitled Online Safety - fees and penalties: Consultation on implementing fees and penalties under the Online Safety Act 2023, published on 23 October 2024, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on the proposed fee regime for companies that do not have a close supervisory relationship with Ofcom.

Companies raising revenue from online services should cover the costs of regulation to keep the online environment safe for users. The Online Safety Act allows Ofcom to charge providers above a revenue threshold a justifiable and proportionate fee.The Secretary of State is considering the contents of Ofcom’s ‘Online Safety – fees and penalties’ consultation, which closes on 9 January 2025. Departmental officials have regular contact with Ofcom regarding respective responsibilities in implementing the fee regime.Parliament will be responsible for approving key aspects of the fee regime including regulations defining Qualifying Worldwide Revenue and the revenue threshold.

Innovation and Technology, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential implications for its policies of the report entitled Replacing the Research Excellence Framework published by UK Day One on 8 October 2024.

The next Research Excellence Framework (REF) is currently being developed by Research England and the three Devolved higher education funding bodies, in collaboration with the higher education sector.As development of REF 2029 proceeds, the funding bodies will continue to engage with the sector and assess the feedback and evidence received from stakeholders until final guidance for the next exercise is set in 2026.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the report by UK Day One entitled Reform Academic Publishing to Unblock Innovation, published on 5 September 2024, if he will make an assessment of (a) the potential merits of requiring the publication of all taxpayer-funded research as preprints before they are submitted to academic journals and (b) the value for money of UKRI’s policy on open access block grants.

The UKRI open access policy aims to make the results of publicly funded research immediately available so they can be accessed and built upon. UKRI encourages preprints across research disciplines and reserves the right to require preprints where necessary.UKRI Open Access Block Grant Awards support institutions in meeting its policy requirements. Awards cover article publishing charges (APCs) only under certain value for money terms as well as the sharing of papers via repositories and improvements to digital research infrastructures. UKRI monitors progress on open access, as well as how best to increase the accessibility of the research it funds.