Explained

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Hang on, what’s a select committee?

It’s a formal group of MPs or Peers who assess policy and legislative issues, independent of Government. Commons committees shadow government departments to assess and evaluate their work, as well as overarching things like public finance.

Lords committees have a different remit. Permanent groups cover wide topics – the Digital and Communications Committee running the OSA inquiry is one of these. Others are set up for a single year to look at a specific issues.

Select committees publish reports to which the government (and affected public bodies like Ofcom) will respond. While they cannot directly alter policy or legislation, as a formal part of the Parliamentary framework they nonetheless have considerable influence and are taken seriously.

What’s the inquiry about?

It’s no secret that both the Online Safety Act and Ofcom’s work to enforce it have come in for heavy criticism. The OSA is accused of infringing on privacy and free speech by those who think it is too stringent, and of protecting ‘Big Tech’ rather than children by those who think it isn’t strict enough. That’s a hard needle for the committee to thread. With regard to Ofcom, some people think their work to implement the OSA has been too slow, hasn’t responded to the needs of individual sectors (particularly video games), doesn’t have any teeth, and in some instances hasn’t reflected the OSA requirements closely enough. It’s striking that the OSA is being so closely assessed such a short time (relatively speaking, for such a complicated bit of legislation) since its enactment in 2023, indicating that the committee is really serious about getting the OSA up to scratch.

The inquiry launched by the select committee aims to evaluate:

• Whether the OSA has had any meaningful impacts on online safety;

• The effectiveness and appropriateness of Ofcom’s enforcement;

• If the OSA itself is fit for purpose and what actions government might need to take.

Crucially for the video games sector, that last strand of the inquiry is looking at the potential impact of the pending online age restrictions regulations recently announced.

As part of the inquiry, the committee has opened a call for evidence, closing on 7 September.

And a ‘call for evidence’ is…?

It’s another term for ‘consultation’ – an invitation for anyone who has an opinion to send it in. ‘Evidence’ is a very broad term here, referring not just to hard data but also to views and comments on the issues raised. Anyone from citizens to public bodies can respond, including businesses of all sizes. Questions are provided (see below) but they don’t all have to be answered.

Given the high engagement rate with the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation earlier this year, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of responses from advocacy groups and citizens, covering a wide range of views. It’s therefore important for businesses affected by the OSA to make their voices heard too, whether it’s in support of the Act or to criticise it.