Latest updates: bereaved families say bill has been ‘watered down’ but Michelle Donelan says it has ‘common-sense tweaks’
Good morning. The Rishi Sunak cabinet may be stuffed with faces from the David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss administrations, but it is not all continuity and in some ways Sunak is revising policies pursued by his predecessors. We’ve got an example today, with changes to the online safety bill.
The bill, which has been years in the planning and which was published by Nadine Dorries when she was culture secretary, would extend significant new controls over social media companies. It goes further than what has been tried in most other western democracies. The bill completed almost all its Commons stages in the spring, but it was shelved as Johnson had to resign, amid concerns that it restricted freedom of speech too much and in the knowledge that a new PM might prefer a different approach.
There are two emotions this morning and one is some relief, not just on my part but on the part of many parents who sadly find themselves in similar circumstances, that at last this is moving forward.
There’s been a growing sense of frustration amongst that community of bereaved parents and families that not enough is being done, so that’s the good news.
Let’s be absolutely clear. So you mentioned young people and children – nothing is getting watered down or taken out when it comes to children. We’re adding extra in, so there is no change to children.
