I thank everyone for their contributions to this debate. It is good to hear that the shadow Minister will not be opposing the regulations, as to do so would potentially have put children at risk. I am glad she agrees that it is better to have left the EU with a deal than without one, but I am sorry that I did not hear her put on the record her thanks to all those who negotiated right up to the deadline in order to secure a deal. I would like to put on the record my thanks to all those from both sides of the negotiations, including the EU negotiators, who worked through that holiday period to ensure that we could have as smooth an exit as possible.
The shadow Minister asked what had been done to inform people of changes to the law, so let me be extremely clear that the underlying law has not changed. What has changed is where people will be prosecuted if they breach the underlying law. That is extremely important
and it should be clear to the shadow Minister, so I am surprised that her lawyers have not got that extremely important point. All that is changing is where people will be prosecuted.
The regulations do not diminish in any way the offences I have described as set out both in the Education Act 2002 and in the 2005 electronic commerce directive regulations. They do not impact in any way on the policy behind those regulations. The identity of teachers who are accused by a pupil of an offence will be protected until the point at which relevant legal proceedings have begun and children in care will continue to be kept safe and protected by our ensuring that arranging and advertising adoption can legally only be undertaken by adoption agencies.
The regulations simply fix the deficiencies of retained EU law. They will ensure the enforcement of UK laws when the offence is committed in the UK, irrespective of the country in the European economic area in which the online service providers are based. My understanding is that the devolved Administrations were consulted—I did have discussion on this—and Northern Ireland did give its consent. On the point about malpractice, that is covered only in England and Wales and there is a devolved point in this regard, but I can assure colleagues that the Administrations were contacted as part of this exercise. On that basis, I commend the regulations to the House.
Question put and agreed to.