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ARTICLE · 01 FEBRUARY 2023

Online Safety Bill - Update On Senior Manager Liability

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The Online Safety Bill is back on the UK Government's legislative agenda, this time with an important update relating to criminal liability of senior managers.

United KingdomCriminal Law
Lindsey Cullen
Lindsey Cullen
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The Online Safety Bill (the "OSB") is back on the UK Government's legislative agenda, this time with an important update relating to criminal liability of senior managers. Following some political wrangling, back-bench MPs have successfully pressured the Government to expand the scope of criminal liability for senior managers of regulated services that fail to protect children online.

A change of approach

We wrote previously about the OSB's proposed narrow scope of criminal liability for senior managers. In the bill's previous iteration, senior managers were criminally liable only if their company failed to respond properly to information requests from the regulator, Ofcom.

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