Dr. John Evans:

Deputy Hayes made the point that the platforms are so much bigger and have so many more resources available to them than do the regulators. There are approximately 800 staff working on online safety across Europe at this time, and that number is growing. However, that is not really the point. It is up to the platforms themselves, as the Deputy noted, to ensure the services they offer to society are safe. The purpose of regulators and of legislation is to provide the correct incentives to make that happen. The fines available to us and to the European Commission when we find breaches are very substantial.

That is one part of it. If I had a wish list, one thing I would like to see more of is stronger information-gathering powers. We are talking to the Department about that at the moment and it has been quite supportive. Currently, we can only compel the production of information if we have an open investigation. This is quite inefficient as it means we must open an investigation if we want to rely on information to feed our activity and drive behavioural changes on platforms. We are working with the Department on legislative proposals to improve that. Any support members could offer in that respect would be very useful.