Speeches by Narayan.

“Our technology sector, our entrepreneurs and our creators are close to my heart, as I spent most of my professional life—prior to coming to this place—in those contexts. We have consulted, we have listened and we continue to listen as a new team. Across the board, we will look closely at the evidence and make sure that…”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Through the Online Safety Act 2023, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users from illegal content and safeguard children from harmful content. Ofcom has strong powers to hold firms to account, including fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue. Ofcom has made it clear that it wi…”

“My overarching comment on that would be that it has always been a fundamental challenge with technology regulation as a whole. One of the reasons for the move towards the construct of the Online Safety Act being a more duty-based and risk-based approach, focused on platform duties and with investigative and enforcement…”

“Thank you for that question. The starting point for me is to recognise the sheer volume and intensity of challenge that a number of colleagues have experienced across the House when it comes to online experiences for politicians. On the question of Ofcom’s implementation of the Online Safety Act and its powers, I would…”

“Thank you, Chair. As you know, I am the Member of Parliament for Vale of Glamorgan, and now a freshly appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. I am very keen to address what is, I think, a theme of personal experience for each of us in Parliament, but al…”

“If there are any complaints about the Department’s scrutiny, I am very happy to take a look at them. On day two, I hope that my hon. Friend would think it premature to accuse the Secretary of State and I of having been complicit in that—”

“So, we are very happy to take a look, and I know that my hon. Friend will be assured of my motivation and commitment in doing so. When it comes to the question of parliamentary scrutiny, there are two things, one retrospective and one prospective. Retrospectively, I remember having been outlasted in my tenure in workin…”

“On my part, I certainly take this issue very seriously and I am very keen, as I mentioned previously, on making sure that I look even more deeply at your particular complaints. Broadly speaking, the Act places a very intensive set of responsibilities on the social media platforms. When it comes to the question of illeg…”

“One of the things I find in the social media context is that there is a lot of noise in the entire debate. To cut through it, there are two very basic principles. The first is that the Online Safety Act ensures that illegal behaviour offline is also illegal behaviour online, and the platforms have a legal duty to compl…”

“The reason I raised the question of child protection and illegality was that those are the two areas where Ofcom has started to implement the Online Safety Act. The area that one might describe as legal but harmful content is one that has not yet been implemented, so it would be premature to comment on the quality of t…”

“The realm we are talking about now is largely a realm of norms and conventions, which of course have to be grounded in our core British values. The broad position I would take is that we are now talking less about the legal and regulatory intervention context and more about what we are clearly aspiring to do as a Gover…”

“That is an incredibly thoughtful line of inquiry, especially when it comes to legal and harmful content. The Secretary of State put out a statement on strategic priorities in May this year, and embedding safety by design was an important principle as part of that. Especially on legal but harmful content, if the trade-o…”

“I really appreciate that question, because there is a pretty central political challenge on this theme and I know concerns about it are shared across the House. There are two things that come to my mind. The first is the thing I try to do in this wider debate, which is to start and ground the conversation in very parti…”

“I will take a deeper look at the engagement the Committee has had with the platforms and try to make sure that, where there are deficiencies, we are very much focused on them. It is day two on the job for me and for the Secretary of State, but there is an underlying principle consistent across the changes, which is tha…”

“First, I express my gratitude for the note of congratulation—being described as fresh young blood places a great burden on me to make sure I live up to that standard, so I will try to do that, despite my greying hair. On the particular question of VPN usage, I am happy to come back after having looked at the descriptiv…”

“The primary thing I would say is that the companies have a very strict duty under the Act, especially around illegal harms, and Ofcom has extremely robust powers to take enforcement action against those companies that are not complying with their new duties and protecting users from harm. To give you a specific sense o…”

“It is an ongoing question. When I was a member of staff at the Labour party working on the Online Safety Bill a few years ago, this was a very material question. There were two things that struck me at the time, both of which are even more relevant now. First, there was a very material commitment, fiscally, to Ofcom’s …”

“The shadow Minister talks about trade-offs in public finances, growth and child poverty. In the period since 2015-16, there was zero progress on absolute poverty and zero progress on relative poverty—public finances ruined and growth flat. Does he not think that the central trade-off was between a Tory Government and a…”

“The Leader of the Opposition has appointed every member of Liz Truss’s Treasury team to her Front Bench, apart from those booted out by the public. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a party that has no fiscal strategy but to believe “In Liz We Truss” cannot be trusted on any of it?”

“14. What steps she is taking to help ensure that the transport system supports economic growth.”