Briefings and responses

This briefing details the new Bills of relevance to local government in the Queen's Speech and outlines our local government priorities.

This summary paper sets out some of the issues that councils are grappling with in their work on modern slavery and is intended to assist the Government as it works to refresh and update its modern slavery strategy.

It is right that the Online Safety Bill protects the freedom of speech of users, including the freedom of users to criticise issues such as government policy. However, as it stands, the failure of social media companies to address the abuse and harassment is driving people away from their platforms, reducing their opportunity to contribute to important debates and limiting their own freedom of speech.

It is vital that local government reflects the communities it represents. However, despite women winning the right to stand in elections over 100 years ago, only 35 per cent of councillors are women.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for the regulation by Ofcom of certain internet services.

The key announcements of relevance to local government in the 2022 Queen's Speech, the LGA’s initial view of the proposals and the implications for councils.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for Ofcom to regulate certain internet services.

Whilst the Bill provides a definition of harm and sets out how harmful content will be prioritised for child and adult users; it remains unclear what types of harm platforms will need to protect users against. We urge the Government to set out their proposed categories of harmful content to children and adults as soon as possible and consult with independent experts to define and prioritise harmful content.

The LGA supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for Ofcom to regulate certain internet services. The regulation proposed in this Bill is aimed at ensuring platforms have systems and processes in place to deal with illegal and harmful content and their associated risk.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for Ofcom to regulate certain internet services. The regulation proposed in this Bill is aimed at ensuring platforms have systems and processes in place to deal with illegal and harmful content and their associated risk.