The Bill has been a long time in development. And, it will be a long time after Royal Assent before all the elements of the regulatory framework are up and running, given how much of it depends on secondary legislation and the production of, and consultation on, codes and guidance. We set out the timeline to date below and refer members to OFCOM’s roadmap of July 2022 for their best guess at the timeline ahead. Notwithstanding the extensive preparatory work OFCOM is undertaking behind the scenes to prepare for its new powers, the subsequent delays to the Bill will have pushed all those indicative dates further to the right. It will now be mid-2025 (at the earliest) before the full regime is implemented.

The Online Safety Bill: the story so far

October 2017

DCMS (under Karen Bradley) publishes the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper

April 2018

DCMS (under Matt Hancock) publishes the Green Paper response and signals intention to legislate

April 2019

DCMS (under Jeremy Wright) publishes the Online Harms White Paper, which proposes a “duty of care” framework, based on Carnegie UK’s proposal

February 2020

DCMS (under Nicky Morgan) publishes the initial Government response to the Online Harms White Paper

December 2020

DCMS (under Oliver Dowden) publishes the full Government response to the Online Harms White Paper

May 2021

DCMS (still under Oliver Dowden) publishes the draft Online Safety Bill

June-July 2021

Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Online Safety Bill by a Joint Committee

December 2021

Joint Committee publishes its report

March 2022

DCMS (under Nadine Dorries) publishes Government response to the Joint Committee report and introduces full Online Safety Bill into Commons

May-June 2022

Committee stage of the Online Safety Bill

July 2022

Online Safety Bill completes 1st day of Report; 2nd day postponed

December 2022

DCMS (under Michelle Donelan) announces changes to the Bill ahead of delayed second day of Report stage. Bill is recommitted to Public Bill Committee

January 2023

Third day of Commons Report and Third Reading. Bill passes to the Lords.

 

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