Ministers to be quizzed over controversial Online Safety Bill

Several government minsters are scheduled to be quizzed by the Joint Committee on the Online Safety Bill this morning.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries MP; Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Chris Philp MP; and Minister for Security and Borders at the Home Office, Damian Hinds MP will face the committee from 9:45 this morning.

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport recently accepted recommendations from the Law Commission to outline offences in the bill based on online content that could be thought to generate “likely psychological harm” as opposed to that which is simply “indecent” or “grossly offensive”.

While the bill is currently backed by England’s Children’s Commissioner and the NSPCC, man free speech campaigners have expressed concerns over its broadening of the definition of criminal content.