Written questions by Carling.

What steps her Department is taking to examine how AI could speed up the issuance of Remedial Service Statements to people in receipt of public sector pensions affected by the McCloud judgement.

Scheme managers of the individual public service pension schemes are responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of the McCloud remedy to affected members. I have written to scheme managers to remind them of their responsibilities to implement the remedy as quickly as possible and I would expect them to work with administrators the most appropiate available tools to do this.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle (a) the blackout challenge and (b) other physically harmful trends on social media.

Under the Online Safety Act, services need to put in place protections for all users from content which is illegal. There are additional protections for children from harmful content, including content that encourages or promotes dangerous stunts or challenges, serious violence or injury, and content encouraging ingestion, inhalation or exposure to harmful substances.Ofcom’s guidance states that asphyxiation challenges like the ''blackout challenge’’ are examples of dangerous stunt and challenge content. Therefore, services likely to be accessed by children are required to protect children from this content by taking measures such as filtering out harmful content from children's algorithmic feeds.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent changes to Meta guidelines on hateful conduct which allow Facebook users to refer to LGBT+ people as mentally ill.

The government is aware of the changes Meta has made to its guidelines. This change does not affect the strong protections the Online Safety Act will bring in for UK users online. The Act will oblige all social media companies to remove illegal content and content harmful to children and will give adult users more control over the type of content they see, including that which is hateful or abusive.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2024 to Question 10824 on Instagram: Politics and Government, if he will ask Ofcom to investigate Instagram's limiting of political content.

The Online Safety Act has safeguards for freedom of expression and will give platforms that cross a certain threshold (known as ‘Category 1’ services under the framework) specific duties to safeguard news journalism and content of democratic importance. Ofcom will be able to review providers’ compliance with these duties when they come into effect. As an independent regulator, any investigations and enforcement decisions are a matter for Ofcom.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of recent steps taken by Instagram to limit political content on levels of democratic engagement; and what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's polices.

The Government recognises the influence major online platforms can have on public discourse. This is why the Online Safety Act gives platforms over a designated threshold (known as ‘Category 1 services’) new duties to protect journalism and other content of democratic importance on their services. These duties are designed to safeguard pluralism in online debate and ensure that platforms in scope treat democratic content consistently and transparently.