Peer piles on pressure to bring duty of care into law

A DUTY of care Bill to rein in tech giants will be introduced in the Lords next month amid fears government plans could be delayed for a year.

Lord Mcnally, an architect of Britain’s current broadcasting regime, has challenged the Government to back his Bill. It would pave the way for a statutory duty requiring Facebook, Youtube and other tech firms to do more to protect children from online harms.

The Bill, selected for its first reading on Jan 14, gives Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, powers to prepare for a duty of care enforced by a regulator. It would also require the Government to introduce a draft duty of care bill for consultation, based on Ofcom’s work.

Lord Mcnally told The Daily Telegraph: “We are in danger of losing a whole year on this. The Government’s commitment to develop safer internet legislation in the Queen’s Speech, though welcome, did not go far enough. The timetable seems to have slipped and there was no mention of the draft Bill that we need to ensure that the details are right.”

The Government has yet to reveal the findings from the consultation on its summer White Paper, which laid out its plans for a duty of care with a regulator empowered to prosecute tech company directors for breaches.

The results have been delayed by the general election. The Queen’s Speech this month promised only to “develop” a bill, and dropped a commitment for a draft bill to be debated by Parliament.

Lord Mcnally, a former digital minister and Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords, worked with Lord Puttnam, the film director, to frame the 2003 Communications Act, which created Ofcom. He is drafting the Bill with the Carnegie Trust, which originally proposed a duty of care.

The Telegraph has campaigned for such a duty over the past 18 months.