In 2017 the former Prime Minister commissioned the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s Review of Intimidation in Public Life. Government is acting on the Committee’s recommendations, as set out in the Government’s response to the report, which was published in March 2018.

We are clear that we expect companies to do substantially more to keep their users safe and counter online abuse, particularly where this abuse is illegal. The Online Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, to ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe. Compliance with this duty of care will be overseen by an independent regulator, which will have a range of enforcement powers.

Government has also asked the Law Commission to conduct a second phase of its review of the legal framework around abusive and offensive communications online. This will make specific recommendations for legal reform and is due to report in early 2021.

The Parliamentary Security Department regularly provides advice to Members and their staff on social media security, but we do not collate data on these interactions. For security and privacy reasons, the discussions held between Members and the House authorities relating to threats and abuse are not publicly available. Threats and abuse received by Members should always be reported to the police.

The Member is invited to contact the Director of Security for Parliament directly if he wishes to discuss this matter further.

Parliament has established a reasonable relationship with the main social media companies, including Twitter. We continually monitor the effectiveness of our work as we regularly raise abusive content directly with the company on behalf of Members.

Threats and abuse received by Members should always be reported to the police.

The Parliamentary Security Department uses best endeavours to review tweets sent publicly to Members, reporting matters of concern to the police and Twitter as appropriate. This opt-in service is only done with Members’ express permission.

The Parliamentary Security Department regularly provides advice to Members and their staff on social media security, but we do not collate data on these interactions. For security and privacy reasons, the discussions held between Members and the House authorities relating to threats and abuse are not publicly available.

The Member is invited to contact the Director of Security for Parliament directly if he wishes to discuss this matter further.