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UK Parliament

Online Safety Bill completes passage through parliament

20 September 2023

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The Online Safety Bill rewas given Royal Assent on Thursday 26 October and is now an Act of Parliament (law).

The Online Safety Bill seeks to establish a new regulatory regime to address illegal and harmful content online and impose legal requirements on search engine and internet service providers, including those providing pornographic content. The bill will also confer new powers on the Office of Communications (Ofcom), enabling them to act as the online safety regulator.

Consideration of amendments

The bill was considered by the House of Lords between 18 January and 6 September 2023, before returning to the House of Commons. 

Members of the Lords then considered Commons reasons for disagreeing to Lords amendments (changes) to the bill.

These amendments covered subjects including mitigating the impact of harm to children online and animal torture content.

Commons reasons were accepted by members without a division (vote).

How to follow

What's happened so far?

Third reading: Wednesday 6 September

Third reading is the chance for members to ‘tidy up' a bill, making small changes to ensure it is effective. 

A number of government amendments (PDF) were put forward ahead of third reading on subjects including parliamentary scrutiny, remote participation in Ofcom and age assurances.

Members also discussed the progress of the bill at the conclusion of its Lords stages.

Catch up

Report stage day five: Wednesday 19 July

Members speaking on the fifth and final day of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed.

These amendments covered a range of subjects, including: 

  • Ofcom guidance and regulations
  • parliamentary consultation
  • information about a deceased child's use of online services.

Lords divisions

There were also two divisions (votes) on proposed changes to the bill.

Platform categorisation

The first vote was on amendment 245, which changes the bill's current proposals for categorisation of online platforms from being based on a website's size and functionality to its size or functionality. This is to allow Ofcom greater flexibility in deciding which categories platforms should be placed in and bestow the correct duties on service providers to tackle harmful and illegal content.

Members voted 196 in favour and 183 against, so the change was made.

Anti-terrorism and child abuse orders

The second vote was on amendment 258ZA, which proposed a new clause entitling online service providers to request an assessment by the Information Commissioner of the compatibility of a section 111 order with UK privacy legislation.

Members vote 70 in favour and 178 against, so the new clause was not agreed.

Catch up 

Report stage day four: Monday 17 July

Members speaking on day four of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed. These amendments covered a range of subjects, including: 

  • Ofcom code of practice
  • guidance for protecting women and girls
  • offences relating to animal torture content.

Catch up 

Report stage day three: Wednesday 12 July

Members speaking on day three of report stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed covering subjects including free speech provisions, duties of Ofcom and harms risk assessments.

Lords division

There was one division (vote) on a proposed change to the bill.

Animal torture content

The vote was on amendment 180, which would require the Secretary of State to undertake a review of existing criminal offences to determine whether they apply to online posts containing or facilitating animal torture. If they do, the Secretary of State would be compelled to add these to the list of priority offences in Schedule 7.

Members voted 211 in favour and 171 against, so the change was made.

Catch up 

Report stage day two: Monday 10 July

Members speaking on day two of report stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed covering subjects including free speech provisions, default online settings and harms risk assessments.

Lords division

There was one division (vote) on a proposed change to the bill.

Harmful content

The vote was on amendment 35, which would ensure that in carrying out risk assessments, user to user services must consider the potential for the design and operation of services to create harm separately to harm relating to the dissemination of harmful content to children.

Members voted 240 in favour and 168 against, so the change was made.

Catch up 

Report stage day one: Thursday 6 July

Members speaking on day one of report stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed.

The amendments covered subjects including:

  • age verification on user-to-user services
  • intimate image abuse
  • AI generated content.

Catch up 

Committee stage day ten: Thursday 22 June

Committee stage is the first chance for line by line examination of the bill. 

Members speaking on the final day of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed.

The amendments covered subjects including:

  • sharing of personal data with researchers appointed by Ofcom
  • measures for online services which fail to prevent offences listed under the legislation occurring.

Catch up

Committee stage nine: Thursday 25 May

Members speaking on day nine of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • regulations of virtual and augmented reality content
  • limiting children's access to listings of knives on online marketplaces.

Catch up

Committee stage day eight: Tuesday 23 May

Members speaking on day eight of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • ensuring comment sections of newspaper websites are subject to regulation
  • guidance on age restrictions for adult material.

Catch up

Committee stage day seven: Tuesday 16 May

Members speaking on day seven of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • reviewing complaints procedures 
  • the duty of service providers to manage suicide and self-harm content
  • requiring Ofcom to issue a code of practice on violence against women and girls.

Catch up

Committee stage day six: Thursday 11 May

Members speaking on day six of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • duties to protect news publisher content
  • the treatment of content which represents harmful health misinformation and disinformation.

Catch up

Committee stage day five: Tuesday 9 May

Members speaking on day five of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • ensuring default online settings are the safest options for users
  • identity verification.

Catch up

Lords committee stage day four: Tuesday 2 May

Members speaking on day four of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • requiring user-to-user services to eliminate identified risks to children from their platforms
  • ensuring regulated services uphold children’s rights per the UK’s obligations as a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • requiring a user-to-user service to apply age verification for pornographic content.

Catch up

Lords committee stage day three: Thursday 27 April

Members speaking on day three of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • ensuring users' privacy and security is protected 
  • service providers' obligations to mitigate harm
  • assessing the '4 Cs' of online risks to children (content, contact, conduct and commerce).

Catch up

Lords committee stage day two: Tuesday 25 April

Members speaking on day two of committee stage put forward amendments (PDF) (changes) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • regulation of sites promoting harmful content to children
  • duty on providers whose content is 'likely to be accessed by children'
  • summarising illegal content risk assessments.

Catch up

Lords committee stage day one: Wednesday 19 April

Members speaking on day one of committee stage put forward an amendment (PDF) (change) to the bill to be discussed which covered subjects including:

  • providing higher levels of protection online for children than for adults
  • ensuring internet services don't endanger public health or national security
  • harms experienced online in relation to protected characteristics. 

Catch up

Lords second reading: Wednesday 1 February

During second reading, members discussed the main issues in the bill and drew attention to specific areas where they think amendments (changes) will be needed.

Topics covered during the debate included: 

  • the use of age verification measures 
  • responsibility of social media platforms to tackle illegal content
  • protections for vulnerable adults online
  • promotion of harmful content in social media algorithms. 

Members speaking

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Conservative), Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, opened the debate and responded on behalf of the government.

More than 60 members of the Lords contributed to  the debate, including:

  • Lord Allan of Hallam (Liberal Democrat), executive board member of the European Digital Media Observatory 
  • Baroness Benjamin (Liberal Democrat), broadcaster and vice-president of Barnardos
  • Baroness Harding of Winscombe (Conservative), former CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Group
  • Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated), parliamentary co-chair of the Digital Policy Alliance's Digital Infrastructure Group
  • Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws (Labour), chair of the Video Games Appeal Board and member of the Microsoft Technology and Human Rights Advisory Council
  • Baroness Kidron (Crossbench), former member of the Royal Foundation Taskforce for the Prevention of Cyberbullying and campaigner for protecting children online
  • Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour), member of the joint committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill
  • Lord Mitchell (Labour), founder of the eLearning Foundation 
  • Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative), former Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
  • Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Conservative), former senior BBC executive and Chair of the Lords Communications and Digital Committee.

Explore further information

Read background on the bill in the House of Lords Library Online Safety Bill briefing.

House of Lords Podcast

Find out more about the Online Safety Bill in the House of Lords Podcast. Hear from Baroness Kidron, member of the Draft Online Safety Bill Joint Committee, about regulating tech and social media companies and her work to protect children online. 

Draft Online Safety Bill Committee

Prior to its consideration in the House of Lords, the bill was scrutinised by a parliamentary Joint Committee, comprised of members of the Commons and the Lords.

Image: ExplorerBob / Pixabay

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Further information