My Lords, this has been a very moving debate for a very important cause. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, for introducing it in the way that she did, along with those who have spoken in the debate.
The good news is that this is very much a cross-party and cross-Bench debate. It clearly appears to be a concern that the Government share, and I appreciate that. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Harding, that it is not a weakness for the Government to concede here but very much the logic of where we have now got to. Compared with what is in the Joint Committee report on the draft Bill, what seems to be proposed—and I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say—goes further than what we were proposing, so it may be that we have reached another milestone. However, we wait to hear the detail.
Like other noble Lords, I pay tribute to the bereaved parents. We heard from parents during our consideration of the draft Online Safety Bill and we have heard further since then, particularly as a result of the two notable inquests into the deaths of Frankie Thomas and Molly Russell, which highlighted the difficulties that families and coroners face. Both families talked about the additional toll on their mental health as they battle for information, and the impossibility of finding closure in the absence of answers.
The noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, said in her very moving speech that a humane process must be established for bereaved families and coroners to access data pertinent to the death of a child. That is what we have been seeking, and I pay tribute to the relentless way in which the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, has pursued this issue on behalf of us all, supported by 5Rights and the NSPCC. We must have a transparent process in which bereaved families and coroners can access information from regulated services in cases where social media may have played a part in the death of a child.
My noble friend Lord Allan—who I am delighted is so plugged in to what could be the practical way of solving some of these issues—expertly described how Ofcom’s powers could and should be used and harnessed for this purpose. That very much goes with the grain of the Bill.
I shall repeat a phrase that the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, used: the current situation is immoral and a failure of justice. We absolutely need to keep that in mind as we keep ourselves motivated to find the solution as soon as we possibly can. I look forward to good news from the Minister about the use of information notices for the purpose that has been heralded by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, but of course the devil is in the detail. We will obviously want to see the detail of the amendment well before Report.
1 pm
The noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, asked a number of additional questions about data preservation, and a number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Russell, and the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove,
talked about the question of help, perhaps with a dedicated helpline for bereaved families. Then there is a question about the obligations of senior management in appearing at inquests. As the noble Lord, Lord Russell, said, we continually need to understand the experience of parents in these circumstances, so the data arising from an independent complaints system is extremely important.
If that was not enough on the architecture of the Online Safety Bill, the noble Baroness also mentioned things that reside outside it, such as data inheritance, given that the data protection and digital information Bill is coming down the track. It is good that the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, is sitting on the Front Bench because he will no doubt be dealing with that data protection Bill. We will of course table amendments to that at the time.
There have also been questions about the training for coroners and about approaching the US Government, which is an even larger dimension than anything I have mentioned so far. I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say and hope that we will have achieved the goal that so many families want us to achieve.