Should online platforms be held responsible for digital fraud?

This evidence session will be held remotely and streamed on Parliament TV.

At 9.30am the committee will hear evidence from:

• Professor Victoria Nash, Director, Oxford Internet Institute
• Professor Lorna Woods OBE, Professor of Internet Law, University of Essex
• Lulu Freemont, Head of Digital Regulation, techUK.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• How well equipped is the Online Safety Bill to tackle fraud? How could the Bill be strengthened?
• What are the challenges for the effective implementation of the UK’s digital regulation regime?
• Might proposals for greater identity verification online raise ethical, logistical or operational challenges for users of the internet? How do concerns about privacy impact counter-fraud policy?
• How do UK efforts to legislate for online safety, with particular respect to digital fraud, compare with overseas examples, for example in the EU or the USA?
• What is the risk of economic crime in the metaverse and how can it be tackled?

More on this inquiry

Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, causing losses of billions per year. The committee will consider what measures should be taken to tackle the increase in cases of fraud. It will consider how the provisions laid out in the Fraud Act 2006 are used in practice for the detection, prevention and prosecution of fraud, and explore whether the Act is in need of reform. The committee will pay particular attention to how the Act is being applied to tackle fraud committed online or through digital means.

Read the transcript of the committee’s previous oral evidence sessions on 10 March 2022.

Read the committee’s call for evidence which was published last week.

The committee’s work can be followed on its website and via Twitter.