On behalf of its membership, the cross-party LGA regularly submits to Government
consultations, briefs parliamentarians and responds to a wide range of parliamentary inquiries. Our recent
responses to government consultations and parliamentary briefings can be found here.
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 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 LGA supports the overall aims of the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which makes provisions for the regulation by Ofcom of 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, particularly to children and young people. The Bill primarily does this by introducing duties of care to some user-to-user services (e.g. social media sites) and search engines. The Bill also imposes duties on such providers in relation to the protection of users’ rights to freedom of expression and privacy.
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.
Councillors are experiencing increasing levels of online intimidation, abuse and threats against them, which can prevent elected members from representing the communities they serve and undermine public trust in democratic processes.
The LGA recognises the delicate balance this legislation must maintain between preserving users’ freedom of expression and civil liberties whilst also protecting users from harmful content.
The LGA supports the introduction of an online sales tax, particularly as it would help to spread the range of the taxbase for business taxes. However; this should not be at the expense of business rates income.
The White Paper Legislating for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU states that leaving the EU is an opportunity to ensure returning “power sits closer to the people of the UK than ever before”. It includes a commitment to continue to champion devolution to local government.
Councils have raised concerns about the design and implementation of Universal Credit (UC) Full Service to date, in particular the impact of the initial waiting period and delays in claimants receiving their first UC payment.
We want the continued implementation of Universal Credit to be a success. Equally crucially we want the reformed welfare system as a whole to be a success, not just for Government, but for councils and, most importantly, for the people using it.