To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many staff Ofcom has recruited on an FTE basis to support its duties under the proposed Online Safety Bill, and how many FTE staff Ofcom plans to recruit for those duties in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Answered on
15 November 2021
Ofcom has established a strong team to enable it to prepare for its forthcoming responsibilities to regulate online safety, and is building capability across the organisation. At the end of October 2021 around 100 full time equivalents (FTE) were working on online safety. HM Treasury has confirmed that, following the recent Spending Review, over £110m will be provided for online harms work to be carried out by DCMS and Ofcom over the period 2022/23 - 2024/25. This outcome will ensure that Ofcom has the resources it needs to establish its online safety functions for the successful implementation of the online safety legislation which DCMS will shortly introduce. Ofcom estimates that by the end of 2024/25, based on the scope of the regime as set out in the draft bill, they will have around 340 FTE working on online safety.