62-585: The Online Safety Act 2023 (c. 50) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to regulate online speech and media. It passed on 26 October 2023 and gives the relevant Secretary of State the power, subject to parliamentary approval, to designate and suppress or record a wide range of speech and media deemed "harmful". The act requires platforms, including end-to-end encrypted messengers, to scan for child pornography , despite warnings from experts that it
124-448: A white paper , which is a clear statement of intent. It is increasingly common for a small number of Government bills to be published in draft before they are presented in Parliament. These bills are then considered either by the relevant select committee of the House of Commons or by an ad hoc joint committee of both Houses. This provides an opportunity for the committee to express a view on
186-853: A democratic society" and was incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights . This decision may potentially form part of the basis of legal challenges to the Online Safety Act 2023. Act of Parliament (UK) King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee An Act of Parliament in
248-485: A few, if any, are passed each year. Parliamentary authorities maintain a list of all private bills before parliament . Hybrid bills combine elements of both public and private bill. While they propose to make changes to the general law, they also contain provisions applying to specific individuals or bodies. Recent examples are the Crossrail Bill, a hybrid bill to build a railway across London from west to east , and
310-503: A general change in the law. The only difference from other public bills is that they are brought forward by a private member (a backbencher) rather than by the government. Twenty private members' bills per session are allowed to be introduced, with the sponsoring private members selected by a ballot of the whole house, and additional bills may be introduced under the Ten Minute Rule . Financial bills raise revenue and authorise how money
372-557: A minimum consultation period of twelve weeks. Consultation documents are widely circulated (see for example the Home Office consultation on extreme pornography and the Scottish Government 's consultation on food policy ). The character of the consultation is shaped by the government's determination to press forward with a particular set of proposals. A government may publish a green paper outlining various legislative options or
434-531: A period of consultation will take place before a bill is drafted. Within government, the Treasury and other departments with an interest will be consulted along with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside government, interested parties such as trade unions , industry bodies and pressure groups will be asked for their views on any proposals. The Cabinet Office Code of Practice specifies
496-409: A process of consultation, the sponsoring department will send drafting instructions to parliamentary counsel, expert lawyers working for the government responsible for writing legislation. These instructions will describe what the bill should do but not the detail of how this is achieved. The Parliamentary counsel must draft the legislation clearly to minimise the possibility of legal challenge and to fit
558-498: A prominent supporter of the act, saying it will help protect children from abuse. The Samaritans , that had made strengthening the act one of its key campaigns "to ensure no one is left unprotected from harmful content under the new law" gave the final act its qualified support, also saying the act fell short of the promise to make the UK the safest place to be online. The international human rights organization Article 19 stated that they saw
620-466: A significant number of United Kingdom users, or which target UK users, or those which are capable of being used in the United Kingdom where there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a material risk of significant harm. The idea of a duty of care for Internet intermediaries was first proposed in Thompson (2016) and made popular in the UK by the work of Woods and Perrin (2019). The duty of care in
682-469: A specifically named locality or legal person in a manner different from all others. Private bills are "usually promoted by organisations, like local authorities or private companies, to give themselves powers beyond, or in conflict with, the general law. Private bills only change the law as it applies to specific individuals or organisations, rather than the general public. Groups or individuals potentially affected by these changes can petition Parliament against
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#1733085059907744-418: A sub-category of private acts, which confer specific rights or duties on a named individual or individuals, for example allowing two persons to marry even though they are within a "prohibited degree of consanguinity or affinity" such as stepfather and stepdaughter. Private bills, common in the 19th century, are now rare, as new planning legislation introduced in the 1960s removed the need for many of them. Only
806-606: A tweet that scanning everyone's messages would destroy privacy. Ciaran Martin , a former head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre , accused the government of " magical thinking " and said that scanning for child abuse content would necessarily require weakening the privacy of encrypted messages. In February 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled, in an unrelated case, that requiring degraded end-to-end encryption "cannot be regarded as necessary in
868-463: Is concerning." He also said that the bill "appears to weaken citizens’ control over their personal data", something that is "likely to undermine trust in government and make citizens less willing to share their personal data". David Kaye, a special rapporteur for the United Nations , wrote an open letter to the UK government in 2017, raising concerns about the bill. Kaye questioned the legality of
930-436: Is designed to keep the business of government and public affairs up to date. These bills may not be substantial or controversial in party political terms. Two sub-classes of the housekeeping bill are consolidation bills , which set out existing law in a clearer and more up-to-date form without changing its substance; and the tax law rewrite bills , which do the same for tax law. An Act of Parliament will often confer power on
992-653: Is not possible to implement such a scanning mechanism without undermining users' privacy. The act creates a new duty of care of online platforms, requiring them to take action against illegal, or legal but "harmful", content from their users. Platforms failing this duty would be liable to fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their annual turnover, whichever is higher. It also empowers Ofcom to block access to particular websites. It obliges large social media platforms not to remove, and to preserve access to, journalistic or "democratically important" content such as user comments on political parties and issues. The bill that became
1054-791: Is spent. The best-known such bills are the normally annual Finance Bills introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget . This usually encompasses all the changes to be made to tax law for the year. Its formal description is "a Bill to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with finance". Consolidated Fund and Appropriation Bills authorise government spending. This type of bill
1116-507: The 1976 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Bill , which was a particularly controversial bill that was ruled to be a hybrid bill, forcing the government to withdraw some of its provisions to allow its passage as a public bill. Once passed, hybrid bills are printed as part of the public general acts. Parliamentary authorities maintain a list of all hybrid bills before parliament . It is important not to confuse private bills with private members' bills, which are public bills intended to effect
1178-509: The GOV.UK Verify scheme, a model based on the government not centrally storing data. The Conservative Party manifesto commitment to introduce age verification followed the publication of research into children viewing pornography online that was commissioned by the NSPCC . The polling agency that carried out the research, OnePoll , has been criticised for the techniques it used, raising questions about
1240-718: The House of Commons and peers from the House of Lords . The Opposition Spokesperson, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede , in the House of Lords said, "My understanding is that we now have a timeline for the online harms Bill, with pre-legislative scrutiny expected immediately after the Queen’s Speech—before the Summer Recess—and that Second Reading would be expected after the Summer Recess." But the Minister replying refused to pre-empt
1302-556: The King in Council , a minister , or another public body to create delegated legislation, usually by means of a statutory instrument . Bills may start their passage in either the House of Commons or House of Lords , although bills which are mainly or entirely financial will start in the Commons. Each bill passes through the following stages: Although not strictly part of the legislative process,
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#17330850599071364-692: The United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster , London . An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries ( England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ). As a result of devolution the majority of acts that are passed by Parliament increasingly only apply either to England and Wales only, or England only. Generally acts only relating to constitutional and reserved matters now apply to
1426-454: The "harmful" content they do not want to see. The act grants significant powers to the secretary of state to direct Ofcom, the media regulator, on the exercise of its functions, which includes the power to direct Ofcom as to the content of codes of practice. This has raised concerns about the government's intrusion in the regulation of speech with unconstrained emergency-like powers that could undermine Ofcom's authority and independence. Within
1488-543: The Autumn of 2016. It then moved to the House of Lords . Royal assent was achieved by the end of Spring 2017. The final stages of the legislative process occurred during the wash-up period before the 2017 general election , as was the case with the Digital Economy Act 2010 which completed its course through Parliament during the wash-up before the 2010 general election . Although privacy and technical safeguards for
1550-748: The BBFC's draft guidance to age verification service providers began in March 2018. The age verification provisions were due to come into effect in April 2018, were delayed until the end of 2018 and then further delayed until spring 2019. In March 2019 the BBFC published its guidance, and draft regulations – the Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations 2019 – were produced for approval by Parliament. The UK government stated in April 2019 that it planned to introduce mandatory age verification on 15 July 2019. In June 2019
1612-573: The British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association, also criticised the proposal to increase maximum jail term in its submission to the Government's consultation. The proposal was described as 'unacceptable', 'unaffordable', and 'infeasible'. It has been suggested that this provision may be intended to dissuade users of technology such as Kodi software from downloading content that breaches copyright regulations. A number of expert witnesses to
1674-614: The Co-operative Group and former head of the Government Digital Service , expressed the opinion that "the government relies on bulk data sets too often, instead of simply asking for the individual data set pertaining to the information needed". The civil liberties and privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch told the committee said that bill overlooked the work of the Government Digital Service in setting up
1736-462: The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Wright , announced that the implementation of the law had again been postponed for a period in the region of six months. The ORG also raised concerns over the risk of misuse of bulk data sharing. The provisions regarding copyright infringements were criticised for the vagueness of the definition and the severity of the maximum sentence (10 years in prison). BILETA,
1798-639: The Digital Economy Bill Committee expressed concerns about the bill. Jerry Fishenden , co-chair of the Cabinet Office’s Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group until he resigned in protest on 2 May 2017, expressed the opinion that the bill was based on an "obsolete" model of data sharing. He commented: "I find it surprising the bill doesn’t have definition of what data sharing is, both practically and legally… I’d like to see some precision around what’s meant by data sharing. The lack of detail
1860-537: The Digital Economy Minister, Chris Philp , announced that the act would be amended to bring commercial pornographic websites within its scope. The Act adds two new offences to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 : sending images of a person's genitals ( cyberflashing ), or sharing or threatening to share intimate images. The draft bill was given pre-legislative scrutiny by a joint committee of Members of
1922-592: The Lords. They will check the following: After this process, the bill is then ready for introduction. Digital Economy Act 2017 The Digital Economy Act 2017 (c. 30) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It is substantially different from, and shorter than, the Digital Economy Act 2010 , whose provisions largely ended up not being passed into law. The act addresses policy issues related to electronic communications infrastructure and services, and updates
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1984-762: The Online Safety Act 2023 as a potential threat to human rights, describing it as an "extremely complex and incoherent piece of legislation". The Open Rights Group described the Online Safety Bill (OSB) as a "censor's charter". During an interview for the BBC , Rebecca MacKinnon , the vice president for global advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation , criticised the OSB, saying the threat of "harsh" new criminal penalties for tech bosses would affect "not only big corporations, but also public interest websites, such as Misplaced Pages ". In
2046-468: The Queen's Speech by confirming this. In early February 2022, ministers planned to add to their existing proposal several criminal offences against those who send death threats online or deliberately share dangerous disinformation about fake cures for COVID-19 . Other new offences, such as revenge porn , posts advertising people-smuggling , and messages encouraging people to commit suicide , would fall under
2108-458: The UK government to "amend the Bill to protect strong end-to-end encryption". Meta Platforms has criticised the plan, saying, "We don't think people want us reading their private messages ... The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals". Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart voiced his opposition to the OSB, stating that
2170-399: The act and Ofcom can at any time issue notices requiring the breaking of end-to-end encryption technology. This followed statements from several tech firms, including Signal , suggesting they would withdraw from the UK market rather than weaken their encryption. The UK National Crime Agency , part of the Home Office , has said the act is necessary to protect children. The NSPCC has been
2232-481: The act refers to a number of specific duties to all services within scope: For services 'likely to be accessed by children', adopting the same scope as the Age Appropriate Design Code , two additional duties are imposed: For category 1 services, which will be defined in secondary legislation but are limited to the largest global platforms, there are four further new duties: This would empower Ofcom ,
2294-490: The act was criticised for its proposals to restrain the publication of "lawful but harmful" speech, effectively creating a new form of censorship of otherwise legal speech. As a result, in November 2022, measures that were intended to force big technology platforms to take down "legal but harmful" materials were removed from the bill. Instead, tech platforms are obliged to introduce systems that will allow users to better filter out
2356-543: The act, which contains the age verification mandate. Clause 131 of the government's draft Online Safety Bill , published in May 2021, gave effect to this intention. Addressing the House of Commons DCMS Select Committee , the Secretary of State, Rt. Hon. Oliver Dowden MP confirmed he would be happy to consider a proposal during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill by a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament to extend
2418-586: The bill and propose amendments before it is introduced. Draft bills allow more lengthy scrutiny of potential legislation and have been seen as a response to time pressures which may result in the use of programme orders to impose a strict timetable on the passage of bills and what is known as 'drafting on the hoof', where the government introduces amendments to its own bills. With increased time for scrutiny backed up with considered evidence, draft bills may present governments with difficulty in getting their way. The sponsoring government department will then write to
2480-512: The bill in with existing UK, European Union and delegated legislation. A finished bill must be approved or scrutinised by the sponsoring department and minister, parliamentary counsel and LP. The final stage is the submission of the bill to the authorities of the House in which it is to start its legislative journey. In the Commons, this is the Clerk of Legislation and the Public Bill Office in
2542-402: The conditions for and sentencing of criminal copyright infringement. It was introduced to Parliament by culture secretary John Whittingdale on 5 July 2016. Whittingdale was replaced as culture secretary by Karen Bradley on 14 July 2016. The act received royal assent on 27 April 2017. The provisions of the act include: The bill completed its passage through the House of Commons during
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2604-862: The direction and submit a revised draft to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may give Ofcom further directions to modify the draft, and once satisfied, must lay the modified draft before Parliament. Additionally, the Secretary of State can remove or obscure information before laying the review statement before Parliament. The act has provisions to impose legal requirements ensuring that content removals do not arbitrarily remove or infringe access to what it defines as journalistic content. Large social networks would be required to protect "democratically important" content, such as user-submitted posts supporting or opposing particular political parties or policies. The government stated that news publishers' own websites, as well as reader comments on such websites, are not within
2666-427: The display of advertising on a regulated service (for example, an ad server or an ad network). Ofcom must apply to a court for both Access Restriction and Service Restriction Orders. Section 44 of the act also gives the Secretary of State the power to direct Ofcom to modify a draft code of practice for online safety if deemed necessary for reasons of public policy, national security or public safety. Ofcom must comply with
2728-403: The draft published by the government. Addressing the House of Commons DCMS Select Committee , the Secretary of State , Oliver Dowden , confirmed he would be happy to consider a proposal during pre-legislative scrutiny of the act by a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament to extend the scope of the act to all commercial pornographic websites. According to the government, the act addresses
2790-590: The government to bring in the porn age ban in January 2020, a move that was supported by children's charities. Their argument that there is accepted legal precedent that a government cannot pass a law, secure royal assent for it and then frustrate the will of Parliament by deciding not to introduce it saw them win permission in July 2020 for a judicial review. The government announced in October 2020 its intention to repeal part 3 of
2852-450: The intended scope of the law. Section 212 of the act repeals part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 , which demands mandatory age verification to access online pornography but was subsequently not enforced by the government. The act will include within scope any pornographic site which has functionality to allow for user-to-user services, but those which do not have this functionality, or choose to remove it, would not be in scope based on
2914-440: The largest category of legislation, in principle affecting the public general law applying to everyone across the entire United Kingdom, or at least to one or more of its constituent countries of England , Northern Ireland , Scotland , or Wales . Most public general acts proceed through Parliament as a public bill. Occasionally a bill is treated as hybrid . Private acts are either local or personal in their effect, applying to
2976-548: The major concern expressed by campaigners such as the Open Rights Group about the risk to user privacy with the Digital Economy Act 2017's requirement for age verification by creating, on services within scope of the legislation, "A duty to have regard to the importance of... protecting users from unwarranted infringements of privacy, when deciding on, and implementing, safety policies and procedures." In February 2022
3038-602: The national communications regulator, to block access to particular user-to-user services or search engines from the United Kingdom, including through interventions by internet access providers and app stores . The regulator will also be able to impose, through "service restriction orders", requirements on ancillary services which facilitate the provision of the regulated services. The act lists in section 92 as examples (i) services which enable funds to be transferred, (ii) search engines which generate search results displaying or promoting content and (iii) services which facilitate
3100-427: The privacy implications of collecting user data, and the possible ineffectiveness of a method focused on restricting payments to pornographic websites. Myles Jackman , ORG's legal director, highlighted the potential vulnerability of age verification systems to hacking , and suggested that it would result in more people using virtual private networks , or anonymous web browsers such as Tor . A public consultation on
3162-757: The proposed bill and present their objections to committees of MPs and Lords." They include acts to confer powers on certain local authorities, a recent example being the Canterbury City Council Bill, which makes provisions relating to street trading and consumer protection in the city. Private bills can also affect certain companies: the Northern Bank Bill allowed the statutory right of Northern Bank to issue bank notes to be transferred to Danske Bank which had acquired it. Other private bills may affect particular companies established by Act of Parliament such as TSB Bank and Transas. Personal acts are
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#17330850599073224-618: The proposed framework in relation to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . Jeni Tennison , CEO of the Open Data Institute , commented on the lack of transparency regarding existing public sector data sharing agreements and how the bill's measures fit with them. She spoke of her belief that the bill lacks the transparency needed to avoid the kind of problems that arose with NHS Digital 's abandoned Care.data programme. Mike Bracken , chief digital officer at
3286-423: The quality of the resulting data. For instance, the company offered a questionnaire to children aged 11–16 despite its own terms and conditions of use stating that users must be at least 16 years old. In October 2019, Nicky Morgan MP said that the government had shelved plans to introduce age verification checks for Internet pornography. Four age verification providers subsequently launched legal action to force
3348-482: The relevant policy committee of the Cabinet. The proposals are only discussed at a meeting if disagreements arise. Even an uncontroversial proposal may face administrative hurdles. A potential change in the law may have to wait for a more extensive bill in that policy area to be brought forward before it is worthwhile devoting parliamentary time to it. The proposal will then be bundled together with more substantive measures in
3410-464: The responsibilities of online platforms like Facebook and Twitter to tackle. In September 2023, during the third reading in the Lords, Lord Parkinson presented a ministerial statement from the government claiming the controversial powers allowing Ofcom to break end-to-end encryption would not be used immediately. Despite the government's claim the powers will not be used, the provisions pertaining to end-to-end encryption weakening were not removed from
3472-480: The same Bill. The Ministerial Committee on the Legislative Programme (LP), including the leaders and government chief whips in both houses, is responsible for the timetable of legislation. This committee decides which house a bill will start in, recommends to the Cabinet which proposals will be in the King's Speech , which will be published in draft and how much parliamentary time will be required. Following
3534-642: The same instance, MacKinnon argued the act should have been based on the European Union 's Digital Services Act , which reportedly included differences between centralised content moderation and community-based moderation. In April 2023, both MacKinnon and the chief executive of Wikimedia UK , Lucy Crompton-Reid, announced that the WMF did not intend to apply the age-check requirements of the act to Misplaced Pages users, stating that it would violate their commitment to collect minimal data about readers and contributors. On 29 June of
3596-458: The same year, WMUK and the WMF officially published an open letter, asking the government and Parliament to exempt "public interest projects", including Misplaced Pages itself, from the OSB before it entered its report stage , starting on 6 July. Apple Inc. criticised legal powers in the OSB which threatened end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms in an official statement, describing the act as "a serious threat" to end-to-end encryption, and urging
3658-520: The scope of the act is any "user-to-user service". This is defined as an Internet service by means of which content that is generated by a user of the service, or uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service, may be read, viewed, heard or otherwise experienced ("encountered") by another user, or other users. Content includes written material or messages, oral communications, photographs, videos, visual images, music and data of any description. The duty of care applies globally to services with
3720-455: The service would not compromise its encryption for the proposed law and saying "The reality is, our users all around the world want security – ninety-eight percent of our users are outside the UK, they do not want us to lower the security of the product and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those ninety-eight percent of users." He also stated in
3782-422: The sharing of citizens' data are not included in the act, the government stated that it intended to publish codes of practice following a public consultation. The consultation took place in the Autumn of 2017. The Open Rights Group (ORG), a digital rights campaigning organisation, raised concerns over aspects of the Bill. The provisions for the age verification of pornographic website users raised concerns about
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#17330850599073844-410: The whole of the United Kingdom . A draft piece of legislation is called a bill . When this is passed by Parliament and given royal assent , it becomes an act and part of statute law . Acts of Parliament are classified as either "public general acts" or "local and personal acts" (also known as "private acts"). Bills are also classified as "public", "private", or "hybrid". Public general acts form
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