Lewis Atkinson
MP for Sunderland Central · Labour · United Kingdom
“T7. As the Government prepare their taxi and private hire vehicle Bill, will the Minister ensure that local authorities such as Sunderland have the enforcement powers and resources that they need to regulate all vehicles operating in their area, regardless of where those vehicles are registered?”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) on securing this debate and I congratulate Members from across the Chamber on their contributions. It should not be said that issues facing our universities are the preserve of MPs from big cities or the leafy suburbs.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Home tuition income has fallen behind costs, and the visa landscape for international students has changed rapidly and unpredictably. As a result, the university has had to set out plans to save £40 million over the next two years, and staff are understandably worried about their jobs. That pressure did not come from nowhere.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is what widening participation looks like in practice: young people from Pallion, Hendon or Southwick in my constituency having the chance to get a degree and, by living at home, de-risking some of the financial issues facing students that we have talked about.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Nowhere is that clearer than in health. Sunderland trains the nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and doctors whom our NHS rely on. Its medical school was explicitly set up to bring more working class and local students into medicine. It is now moving into dental education, in a region where too many people struggle to see NHS dentists.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I, of course, welcome the return of targeted maintenance grants. But in previous responses the Government have been keen to highlight that universities have always been autonomous institutions. I understand that.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“I thank the Minister for his response and the very welcome commitment that he has made to involve the family in the development of the statutory guidance. As he alludes to, family circumstances differ significantly and the person in the family best placed to keep a child safe may or may not have parental responsibility—in some cases, it may be a grandparent, an aunt or so on. Will the Minister ensure that the statutory guidance reflects that in terms of the wider disclosure beyond just parents?”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Let us hope that we can get this legislation passed, as well as the following statutory guidance, which will take us a step closer to Maya’s law and the progress and action that the family requires. I know that Gemma and Rachael wanted to ensure that Maya’s voice was heard in Parliament today, and I hope they feel that it has been. I thank all Members again, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for the work she has done on this issue and for her contribution today. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered e-petition 731497 relating to a disclosure and safeguarding mechanism for at-risk children.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They sometimes have different dynamics, and social workers and other agencies need to have the professional space and time to figure out who in any family is best placed to help safeguard a child. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill delivers on the Government’s commitment to introduce a duty to share information between agencies, which is absolutely right and welcome. However, there will always be a family member who potentially has additional information. They will love the child as they are, and—no disrespect to any professionals involved—that is a key part of the safety picture for any individual child. I welcome the Minister’s commitments on this issue.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank all Members for contributing to this important and serious debate. As we can tell from the Members present, this issue has a particular north-east focus, because it was our part of the world where Maya lived and was loved, and where she was tragically killed. However, this issue is far from specific to the north-east, as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster), made clear when he referred to the case of Sara Sharif. The hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) also made that clear. Too many children across the whole country are killed by abuse and neglect, and I really welcome the Minister’s commitment to involving the family in the development of the statutory guidance, and the recognition that, in many cases, families come in different shapes and sizes.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Can the Minister outline how the new national homelessness strategy will provide additional funds to Sunderland city council to tackle rough sleeping and to support the vital work that organisations such as Oasis Community Housing, the Salvation Army and the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen do in our city?”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Sunderland is a happier place than Mar-a-Lago at the moment. Perhaps that is why the leader of Reform UK, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), is visiting today, having called on the UK to do all we can to support the US and Israel’s war on Iran. But I am here to stand up for Sunderland, not for Donald Trump, so can I impress on the Leader of the House that my constituents do not want to be drawn into a war that is not our own, and that they are concerned about rising petrol prices? Will he make ample time after the recess for these views to continue to be heard, and will he ensure that the Government continue to make decisions solely in the British national interest?”
House of Commons26 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Along with Home Affairs Committee colleagues, I spent time in northern France last year seeing the challenges of intercepting small boats. The French maritime doctrine has clearly been an obstacle to adopting the more assertive tactics that my constituents wish and expect to see. Can the Minister outline the progress in getting the French to change their tactics, and will he make the continuation of Sandhurst funding dependent on that?”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Analysis by Rethink Mental Illness of the latest NHS waiting time statistics shows that people are eight times more likely to wait over 18 months for mental health treatment than physical health treatment. Does the Minister agree that waiting 18 months for such treatment is totally unacceptable? What steps will the Government take to cut adult mental health waiting times?”
House of Commons24 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Network Rail has rightly apologised for its failure to deliver a functional Sunderland station following refurbishment. We now have the bare basics in place, and plans for improvement. Will the Secretary of State join me in asking Northern Rail to get on with delivering those improvements, and will she arrange a meeting for me with the Rail Minister to discuss that?”
House of Commons12 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Minister mentioned strengthening the process for direct ministerial appointments. Could he say a little more about that and how quickly he believes those strengthened processes will be put in place?”
House of Commons12 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Roker park is loved by our community, and there is loads going on there—from bowls and model boating to a miniature railway. Recently, I met some of the volunteers who keep the park so vibrant, along with Councillor David Newey, who has attracted investment for the restoration of the bandstand and the installation of new play equipment before the summer. Will the Leader of the House pop down the coast from his constituency and join me for a coffee at Ruhe in the park? Will he also consider a debate on the contribution made across the country by groups such as the Friends of Roker Park?”
House of Commons12 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I wish to thank NHS cancer teams in Sunderland for doing such incredible work in my constituency. Other Members have mentioned the unacceptable variation in NHS performance against waiting times, and I commend the Minister’s focus on that. Can she say a little about the variation in waiting times by tumour site? In November last year, 82% of skin cancers were tret within 62 days, but for gynaecological cancers, the figure was only 58%.”
House of Commons5 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for the speech he is making. Does he agree that although the Government seek through their proposals to increase integration, by limiting ILR to those who stay beyond 10 years we are actually going to reduce integration in exactly the sort of instance that he has outlined? That risks undermining the integration that I see in workplaces, churches and community groups in Sunderland.”
House of Commons2 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I welcome the 15% off business rates for pubs in Sunderland. As we are a music city—live music is core to our identity and regeneration—I particularly welcome the steps that the Minister has announced for live music venues, and his engagement with me and the Music Venue Trust. Could he say a little bit about the methodology for music venues? I know that he will look at the pub methodology, but would he consider discussing the future methodology for music venues? We could perhaps do that at a gig at Independent, or over a pint at the Ship Isis afterwards.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is important, therefore, that the discussion of the Bill is not interpreted as a slight on their contribution or commitment. In aggregate, as I have said, the GMC has been clear that while international graduates are essential to the functioning of our health services, they are statistically more likely to leave the UK workforce within six years of joining compared with those who train here. That reality makes clear the risk of overreliance on a system that is unpredictable and, ultimately, unsustainable. This Bill is about balance, not exclusion; it is about ensuring that the significant public investment we are making in training doctors in this country translates into a stable and sustainable workforce for the years ahead.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“However, I think it is important, as others have done, to put on the record our recognition of the enormous benefit brought by medical professionals who have chosen to come to the United Kingdom and dedicate their careers to the NHS. I know that will continue even after this legislation is passed. As I always say, healthcare is a team sport, and in my experience, when a team is working together under significant operational pressure, the commitment of everyone in going the extra mile, no matter which country they trained in and what nationality they are, is always exemplary. That is the case throughout the NHS that I know. The contribution of international medical and wider clinical staff to our NHS is invaluable, and it must never be diminished or forgotten. I know that will continue.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That experience also highlighted to me how, over a decade under the previous Government, there was a total failure to put in place a proper care framework for those foundation and specialty doctors, which left UK-trained doctors competing in increasingly crowded pools. We have heard some of the numbers already from the Secretary of State: in 2025, there were more than 30,000 doctors competing for just 9,500 training posts. That is not a system that shows proper regard for the commitment of medical graduates or for their wellbeing, let alone a system that is designed to meet the future needs of the country or the NHS. We invest hundreds of thousands of pounds training each medical student, but too often we fail to retain them. That represents a loss not only of talent, but of public investment.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When we talk about trainees, we risk giving the impression that the contribution made by these talented young people will all be in the future, but of course, in reality, people in training positions provide a huge contribution of direct service to the NHS today, forming the core of the medical workforce in hospitals up and down the country. When I was an NHS operational manager, I had to get to know the new rotation of core, foundation and specialty training doctors every time as they rotated around. Meeting those inspiring and motivated young people was not just a lovely thing to do but a hugely important one, as the day-to-day care of the patients in the specialties I was responsible for was largely provided by the people on those training courses.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This Bill is not just the right thing to do but provides the absolute clarity around medical capacity that will allow the Government to do the proper demand work that is necessary to build the NHS of the future. Turning to the immediate situation, I have heard the views clearly expressed by medical graduates in Sunderland and across the country about the bottlenecks they face when trying to secure foundation and specialty training places. Many are left in prolonged periods of uncertainty, unable to progress despite years of study.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The GMC is absolutely clear that an international medical graduate will, on average, work for a shorter period of time in the UK than a UK medical graduate—they are more likely to leave. I suggest that it is entirely sensible that the Government are bringing in the legislation now, in advance of their NHS workforce planning, because the Bill fixes a core assumption of that plan. To give an example, I have managed cancer waiting lists and, knowing that I have a list of patients I am responsible for, feared that the lower gastrointestinal oncologist who is getting on will announce their retirement without a clear succession plan, as lower GI oncologists are in short supply.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I welcome the Government bringing forward this legislation, and not just in response to the significant concerns that doctors currently have about access to training places, but as an important part of a reset, with a longer-term approach, to ensure that we have an NHS workforce that is fit for the future. I am going to go off script and respond to some comments that the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Daventry (Stuart Andrew), made. He rightly pointed out that the Bill is about prioritisation, not immediate capacity. However, in week one or two of NHS manager school, one of the core techniques that is taught is about capacity and demand modelling. A fundamental assumption about the capacity of our workforce going forward is retention—how long they will work over the course of their careers.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hope that by introducing effective, regulated training pathways, the Bill will improve retention and strengthen workforce planning in our communities, including in areas such as women’s health, where training provision has not kept pace with rising demand. When I look at the shape of the NHS elective waiting list, it is no coincidence that some of the trickiest waiting time problems are in specialties such as gynae, where we have had recruitment and training challenges in recent years. To close my remarks, I re-emphasise the link between capacity and demand, which I hope the Minister will touch on in advance of the workforce plan. Will she also say a little about the medical training review and the phase 1 report for NHS England and how the Government will work with that?”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is also worth saying that the national statistics about specialty training mask significant regional variations. The GP specialty training fill rate has been as low as 62% in the north-east of England, and as we have heard, over 73% of applicants for GP specialty training in 2023 were international. That has a disproportionate effect in regions like mine. My constituents want to have the confidence that there will be a stable GP workforce as part of our community for the long term. I cannot tell them in all candour that the status quo delivers that, so we must make changes of the type that the Bill sets out.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In my view, the Bill will help to ensure that talent nurtured by institutions like the University of Sunderland is retained and prioritised for the benefit of our NHS. I highlight that medical schools such as Sunderland are increasingly placing a huge emphasis on training their medical students in a multidisciplinary environment alongside the trainee nurses and trainee pharmacists of the day, so that they are prepared to work in the multidisciplinary environment that our NHS rightly demands. I am not sure that all international undergraduate courses are always so advanced, so it is right to prioritise this UK-based training approach for the multidisciplinary ethos of the NHS in the future. Other Members have mentioned the wide variation in specialist training fill rates, and GP recruitment has been mentioned as part of that.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In that spirit, I recognise the excellent work of the University of Sunderland medical school, which has placed widening access at the heart of its mission. Building on a 100-year history of wider clinical training, the school opened in 2019, shortly before the covid-19 pandemic—a period that starkly exposed our over-reliance on overseas recruitment and underlined the importance of growing our own workforce. By 2022, 47% of the University of Sunderland’s intake were local students, and it now ranks sixth in the UK for student satisfaction. However, it is no good universities like Sunderland in my constituency doing excellent work on widening participation at recruitment stage if when we get to foundation training and specialty training those students are disadvantaged in competition.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I want to ensure that a young person doing well at a state school in Sunderland has as much encouragement and access as anyone else in the country to study medicine and, crucially, progress through the ranks to the highest grades. We have heard some talk of international medical schools, but I can absolutely assure Members that there are not state school-educated kids in Sunderland thinking that they will pay privately to study in Grenada or anywhere else. As the Secretary of State rightly pointed out, there have been welcome improvements on diversity in the NHS, but we often fail to consider socioeconomic background in that. The first line of the NHS constitution states: “The NHS belongs to the people.” But sometimes it can feel like it is staffed by a pretty unrepresentative slice of the people, particularly in medical roles.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There is some merit in the hon. Gentleman’s proposal, not just for medical training but across the clinical workforce. As Members have acknowledged, we pay significant sums of public money training clinical staff, but the graduates incur significant student debt. If a UK-trained undergraduate student decides to work abroad, the UK taxpayer will have invested a significant amount in their training, and that is then lost. It strikes me that there is an opportunity for the Government to think about the sort of incentive that the hon. Gentleman describes as part of wider workforce planning. That is pertinent to my next point about the importance of the medical workforce reflecting our wider society, particularly the working class communities of the north-east of England.”
House of Commons27 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I welcome the Home Secretary’s statement. My constituents expect the everyday policing response to improve, but they know the value of more specialist public order capabilities, because in August 2024 the brave officers of Northumbria police put on their public order gear to protect our citizens against disgraceful violent conduct in our city centre. Can the Home Secretary say a little more about how she envisages public order responsibilities sitting between the national body that she outlines and regional forces? Can she say a little about the funding streams for that?”
House of Commons26 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As someone who supports modernising and digitising the state, but who spoke against mandatory digital ID, I welcome the Minister’s sensible approach and his engagement over recent months. My constituents are really concerned about illegal working. Does he agree that the current and largely paper-based system of right-to-work checks is totally unfit for purpose and open to fraud, and will he outline how this scheme will help crack down on illegal working in a way that the Conservative party totally failed to do over 14 years in power?”
House of Commons15 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend and his Committee for their work on this really important matter. I would like to ask about the recommendations regarding substance misuse treatment commissioning. Does he agree with me and Collective Voice, the umbrella organisation for drug treatment providers, that drug treatment services are entirely different from general health services and need to be commissioned separately? There is no Minister from the Department of Health and Social Care present today, but will he join me in calling on the Department to think again about transferring commissioning responsibilities to ICBs, particularly given the changes going on? Does this not reiterate the need for a joined-up drugs strategy across Government, with the Home Office, Health Department and Ministry of Justice working together on this issue as a priority?”
House of Commons15 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member mentioned £100 million or £300 million as minuscule amounts, but that is quite a lot of money to my hard-pressed constituents. Could the Liberal Democrats outline how they would pay for the policy that they advocate for—either increasing taxes on working people in my constituency or cutting the services they use?”
House of Commons12 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The administration of that system has been described to me as time-consuming and liable to being weaponised by trolls. Some forum hosts feel that the uncertainty regarding the liability they face under the Online Safety Act is too much. The reassurance offered that prosecution is “unlikely” has not given sufficient confidence to some who have been running community sites as volunteers. To some, the risk of liability, personal financial loss or simply getting it wrong has been too great; when the Act came into force, 300 small forums reportedly exited the online space or lost their status as independent forums and migrated to larger platforms such as Facebook.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“He told me that he came close to shutting the site down when the Online Safety Act came into force and has still not ruled that out completely. He points out that there have been thousands of pages of guidance issued by Ofcom on the implementation of the Act, and that, while tech companies with large compliance teams have the capacity to process that volume of guidance, having volunteers do the same is a huge challenge. Ofcom has stressed that it will implement the Act in a way that is risk-based and proportionate, and has offered a digital toolkit targeted at small services in response. But even for the smaller sites the rules seem to require, for example, a separate and documented complaints system beyond the usual reporting functionality that small forums have often had in place.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“A number of the administrators of such forums have expressed concern that they now face liabilities and obligations under the Online Safety Act that they are not equipped to meet. I must declare an interest at this stage. For more than a decade, I have regularly used the Ready To Go—RTG—Sunderland AFC fans’ messaging boards. They provide thousands of Mackems with online space to discuss the many ups and downs of our football club and associated issues facing the city, with current topics including club finances, “Match of the Day” tonight and, following a successful Wear-Tyne derby yesterday, “The Mag meltdown” thread. I heard directly from the administrator of the RTG forum in preparation for this debate.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We should recognise that the Online Safety Act implemented measures to regulate a wide range of diverse services, from social media giants to commercial sites, but also online spaces run by charities, community and voluntary groups, and individuals. As the first substantive attempt at regulating safety online, the OSA has brought into regulation many services that have not previously been regulated. Mr Baynham explained to me that those services lay behind his primary motivation in creating the petition. He was spurred by concerns about the impact of the Online Safety Act on online hobby and community forums of the type he uses. They are online spaces created by unpaid ordinary people in their spare time, focused on the discussion of particular shared interests—games, a film or TV series, or football teams.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There was the introduction of a framework placing obligations on in-scope services—for example, social media platforms—to implement systems and processes to reduce the risk of their services being used for illegal activity, including terrorism offences, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and drugs and weapon offences. Those duties have been implemented and enforced since March 2025. Secondly, the Act required services to implement systems and processes to protect under-18s from age-inappropriate content—both content that may be passed from user to user, and content that is published by the service itself, such as pornography sites.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As the Minister at the time said: “The Bill is world-leading, and the legislative framework established by it will lead to the creation of a profoundly safer online environment in this country. It will kickstart change where that is sorely needed, and ensure that our children are better protected against pornography and other content that is harmful to them.” —[ Official Report , 12 September 2023; Vol. 737, c. 799.] Although some aspects of the Online Safety Act have been more prominent than others since its introduction, it is important in this debate to recall that there are multiple parts of the Act, each of which could separately be subject to amendment or indeed repeal by Parliament.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I believe that at the heart of any balanced discussion on this issue is a recognition of two simultaneous features of the online world’s development over the last 30 years. First, there has been the development of incredible opportunities for people to communicate and form bonds together online, which go far beyond the previous limitations of geography and have allowed a huge multiplication of opportunities for such interactions—from marketplaces to gaming to dating. We should welcome that in a free society. Secondly, the opportunities for harm, hate and illegality have also hugely increased, in a way that previous legislation and regulation was totally unequipped to deal with. That is what prompted the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 722903 relating to the Online Safety Act. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Pritchard, and to open this important debate as a member of the Petitions Committee. I start by thanking the 550,138 people who signed the petition for their engagement with the democratic process, and in particular the petition creator, Alex Baynham, whom I had the pleasure of meeting as part of my preparations for this debate; he is in the Public Gallery today. My role as a member of the Petitions Committee is to introduce the petition and key contours of the issues and considerations that it touches on, hopefully to help ensure that we have a productive debate that enhances our understanding.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is clear that a size-only exemption would not be appropriate; unfortunately, there have been small platforms specifically to host harmful content, such as forums dedicated to idealising suicide or self-harm, but it is possible that some combination of size and risk could be considered together. These questions touch at the heart of how we maintain the positives that come from vibrant and plural internet spaces while also clamping down on online harms.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and he will not be surprised that I will come on in my speech to deal with some wider issues about the Online Safety Act, in particular the protection of children. I think that today’s debate is likely to be more nuanced than simply whether we should maintain or repeal the Online Safety Act, and we will talk about the implementation and potential evolution of the Act over time. The ask that I have heard from administrators of small forums is that Ofcom take further steps to simplify the record-keeping and risk-assessment burdens for small sites. When I have met with other organisation such as the Open Rights Group in preparation for this debate, they have suggested that exemptions be made for small and low-risk sites.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is a more nuanced position, far from asking for a full-out repeal of the OSA, but rather asking how the obligations under the Act can be carried out in a proportionate manner.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. I think, as a society, we want forums such as the ones she reports to close down—they have been harmful. But I recognise that there were others that, maybe pre-emptively, decided to shut down. Perhaps the Minister has further information on how far the reported close-downs were a one-off event, in pre-emption, rather than an ongoing, repeated loss of online spaces. As I have outlined, we are getting at a more nuanced position from owners and operators of bona fide community forums who are concerned about how to ensure that they are meeting their obligations—in the same way that any person would meet obligations such as those under the Data Protection Act 2018, which has always applied.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Here, I am afraid I find it significantly harder to provide balance in my introduction to the debate, having read the report by the Children’s Commissioner that was published in advance of the implementation of the OSA, which stated: “It is normal for children and young people to be exposed to online pornography”, as 70% of children surveyed responded that they had seen pornography online. The report also found: “Children are being exposed at very young ages…the average age a child first sees pornography online is 13…More than a quarter…of respondents had seen online pornography by the age of 11.””
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I do, but I will come to some of the issues regarding social media platforms in what I am about to say. I certainly would not want to stifle the freedom of speech of Newcastle fans expressing their genuine heartfelt sorrow about yesterday’s events. I turn now to wider concerns that have been expressed about the Online Safety Act, which, although they are not the motivations of the petition creator, are undoubtedly held by a number of people who signed the petition. The number of petition signatories notably increased in the immediate aftermath of the implementation of age verification requirements that have been applied to significant parts of the internet, from pornography to some elements of social media.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Yes, it was initially reported that there had been in spike in the number of virtual private networks, or VPNs, being downloaded for access to those sites, but research increasingly suggests it is likely that that trend was being driven by adults worried about their anonymity, rather than by children seeking to circumvent the age limitations. The Online Safety Act addresses harms beyond those done by porn. Content that is especially harmful to children and that children should not have access to includes very violent content and content encouraging limited eating or suicide.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have heard that some petition signatories are particularly concerned about age verification on platforms, such as X, Reddit or Discord, beyond those specifically designed as pornography sites. However, the report by the Children’s Commissioner shows that eight out of 10 of the main sources where children saw pornography were not porn sites; they were social media or networking sites. Those platforms that choose to allow their users to upload pornographic content—some do not—should be subject to the same age-verification requirements as porn sites in order to keep our children safe. Following the implementation of those provisions of the Online Safety Act, it was reported that UK traffic to the most popular pornographic websites was notably down.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree that there is significant work to be done to effectively implement the OSA. I will touch on that, and the Minister may wish to do so in his response. Crucially, the report by the Children’s Commissioner found that children were most likely to see pornography by accident—a key point that some of the criticism of the Act fails to grasp. The horrifying statistics, showing the scale of online harm to children that the OSA is working to reduce, make it obvious why in a recent survey 69% the public backed the introduction of age verification checks on platforms, and why children’s charities and children’s rights organisations overwhelmingly back the OSA and—to my hon. Friend’s point—want it implemented more rapidly and robustly.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am aware that there are large parts of the Online Safety Act that I have not been able to touch on today; I hope that others will do so during the debate. There are questions about end-to-end encryption, cyber-flashing, the creation of abusive deepfakes, AI moderation and chatbots.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Such content often breaches platforms’ own terms of service, but under the Online Safety Act, I understand that Ofcom category 1 services will now be mandated to proactively offer users optional tools to help them to reduce the likelihood that they will encounter legal but harmful content such as that. There is much to be done to implement those provisions in an appropriate manner. However, I invite anyone calling for full repeal of the Act to consider how we as a society deal with the rise of extremism, and a context where the internet can be used as a sort of free-for-all fuelled by hate-filled algorithms that thrive on and incentivise division and hatred, rather than consensus and civic peace.”
House of Commons15 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗