Speeches by Davies-Jones.

“We have already talked about what both Departments fund in terms of victim support. The majority of it is done through the MOJ. We have a rape and sexual abuse support fund, which provides £26 million to over 60 specialist support organisations that offer tailored support programmes to all victims, including victims of…”

“The Law Commission have already looked at this. They concluded that it would not be possible to do so. I mean, that does not necessarily mean we cannot, but we respect the Law Commission and their independence in looking at this quite closely. It is also important to note that these non-consensual images do not necessa…”

“This is a complex area, and I know it has been discussed in connection with previous legislation, previous Bills that were brought forward in this House. We need to be very clear that what counts as intimate for one person can be very different for someone else. It can also be different between different communities an…”

“Microsoft has asked for funding!”

“This is something we debated really heavily during the creation of the Online Safety Act 2023. I was the Opposition shadow Minister leading for the Labour party on the Bill, and we went about this around the houses on how one accesses compensation and how one gets that redress. We currently have the Ofcom range of powe…”

“We have already talked about redress in terms of civil action that can be taken and so on, directly from perpetrators. I know that one of the things that has been considered is: should victims and survivors be able to take redress from the platforms directly? Again, that should potentially be considered.”

“A range of them, in terms of: how do we create the most effective law? What is going to work in this field? Nothing is off the table in our current considerations of how best to proceed in creating these new offences and taking action in that space. I am keen to hear the recommendations from this Committee.”

“My understanding is that if the fines are issued by Ofcom—once the Act is implemented next year—that money will come back to the Government.”

“We have the Victims’ Commissioner and the Domestic Abuse commissioner. There are number of commissioners where victims and survivors can go to get support already and we would not want to be diluting their roles, voices and core purpose. We have already committed to expanding the role of the Victims’ Commissioner in pr…”

“If it is on a non-compliant website, sadly, it is horrendous. I would ask them to seek out victim support and go to somebody to get that support. The problem we have is that until the Online Safety Act is implemented, there is no way of getting that material taken down.”

“Oh gosh. I would advise them to phone the police to report the crime, and hopefully they would get—at least once we have got to grips with it—a really good response from the police and they would know how to take action to deal with it. There is also the Revenge Porn Helpline, which I hate the name of but which the Hom…”

“I totally agree, and that is why I made the point that financial redress is just one element of the victim support available to them. The MoJ funds a ream of support services for tackling violence against women and girls, to support victims and survivors across the country, including therapeutic support, with grants di…”

“It is a disabling mental injury, which is what the scheme covers.”

“I cannot comment on the first point. It is for the courts to determine awards, but I would argue that no amount of money is going to fix this. Money is not the only answer in terms of support available to victims and survivors. The Home Office funds the helpline. The Ministry of Justice funds several support services a…”

“It is a very good question, which we are having close conversations with our colleagues in DSIT about. As I said in my previous answer, we are not just waiting until the legislation is implemented to take action. A whole ream of work is going on, that underpins all this, to tackle violence against women and girls and t…”

“I am aware of the evidence that you have heard and of people’s feedback about Ofcom. Ofcom is in a unique position here, where it has yet to publish its codes of practice. A lot of this has yet to be implemented. There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes on how this Act will work. My lovely colleague in the Home Office s…”

“I cannot comment on individual cases. The whole point is that they are done by the judiciary—if under civil law, it is a civil case, but if through another means, it is independent. What I can say is that we need to make victims and survivors aware of their rights under the victims code. That is something that is squar…”

“There are already a wide range of civil actions that can be taken against those who are perpetrating intimate image abuse, including actions for defamation and harassment. Victims and survivors are able to get that redress directly from the perpetrator.”

“That is something DSIT is looking at. We are awaiting the code of practice to be published by Ofcom next month. I appreciate that it is frustrating that we have not got them now, but we are waiting to see what is in the codes and in any implementation of the Act—that could be something that is in the Act. Organisations…”

“It means, as we have heard, that the platforms will have to actively make sure that this content is not proliferating on their platforms and take action against it to remove it. When they are made aware of it, they have to take action to remove this imagery. Otherwise, they are falling foul of the Online Safety Act and…”