It was expected that the Bill, which imposes a legal duty on online platforms to keep users safe, would finish its passage through the House of Commons on July 20 before going to the House of Lords.
However, the Bill will now not be allotted parliamentary time until September 6 at the earliest, which is the day after the UK parliament returns from recess. This has given rise to speculation that the Bill could be heavily amended or even scrapped entirely, with leadership candidates voicing concerns about the legislation.
Meanwhile, Damian Collins MP, the new Minister responsible for the Bill, reaffirmed the Government’s current position that specialist publications would not get the protections offered to general news publishers.
In response to a question from Press Gazette, the Minister said: “It is news providers, rather than specialist journals or magazines, that are within scope. We considered this during the joint committee on the bill actually, this matter has been discussed quite a lot.
“I think there needs to be a reasonably tight definition of what a news provider is in this case otherwise I think it could be extremely broad”.
This is an interesting development, given that the Joint Committee which scrutinised the Draft Bill, and which was chaired by Collins, specifically recommended that the Bill be amended to protect specialist publications.
The PPA looks forward to working with the new Minister and peers in the Lords to ensure that the landmark Bill will not restrict the UK public’s access to all forms of trusted, independently regulated journalism.