Under a planned amendment to the Online Safety Bill, people who share so-called ‘deepfakes’ – explicit images or videos which have been manipulated to look like someone without their consent – will be among those to be specifically criminalised for the first time and face potential time behind bars.

The government will also bring forward a package of additional laws to tackle a range of abusive behaviour including the installation of equipment, such as hidden cameras, to take or record images of someone without their consent.

These will cover so-called ‘downblousing’ – where photos are taken down a woman’s top without consent – allowing police and prosecutors to pursue such cases more effectively.

This will deliver on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to criminalise the practice, in line with previous measures this government has taken to outlaw ‘upskirting’.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, said:

We must do more to protect women and girls, from people who take or manipulate intimate photos in order to hound or humiliate them.

Our changes will give police and prosecutors the powers they need to bring these cowards to justice and safeguard women and girls from such vile abuse.

Today’s announcement builds on the campaign of Dame Maria Miller MP, as well as recommendations from the Law Commission, to introduce reforms to the laws covering the abuse of images.

The amendment to the Online Safety Bill will broaden the scope of current intimate image offences, so that more perpetrators will face prosecution and potentially time in jail.

The Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, said:

I welcome these moves by the government which aim to make victims and survivors safer online, on the streets and in their own homes.

I am pleased to see this commitment in the Online Safety Bill, and hope to see it continue its progression through Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

Around 1 in 14 adults in England and Wales have experienced a threat to share intimate images, with more than 28,000 reports of disclosing private sexual images without consent recorded by police between April 2015 and December 2021.

The package of reforms follows growing global concerns around the abuse of new technology, including the increased prevalence of deepfakes. These typically involve the use of editing software to make and share fake images or videos of a person without their consent, which are often pornographic in nature. A website that virtually strips women naked received 38 million hits in the first 8 months of 2021.

The government will take forward several of the Law Commission’s recommendations to ensure legislation keeps pace with technology and can effectively tackle emerging forms of abuse. This includes:

• Repealing and replacing current legislation with new offences to simplify the law and make it easier to prosecute cases. This includes a new base offence of sharing an intimate image without consent and 2 more serious offences based on intent to cause humiliation, alarm, or distress and for obtaining sexual gratification.
• Creation of 2 specific offences for threatening to share and installing equipment to enable images to be taken.
• Criminalising the non-consensual sharing of manufactured intimate images (more commonly known as deepfakes).

The move builds on government action in recent years to better protect victims and bring more offenders to justice, including making ‘upskirting’ and ‘breastfeeding voyeurism’ specific criminal offences, extending ‘revenge porn’ laws to capture threats to share such images, and using the Online Safety Bill to create an offence specifically targeting ‘cyberflashing’.

Ruth Davison, CEO of Refuge, said:

Refuge welcomes these reforms and is pleased to see progress in tackling abuse perpetrated via technology. As the only frontline service with a specialist tech abuse team, Refuge is uniquely placed to support survivors who experience this form of abuse.

We campaigned successfully for threatening to share intimate images with intent to cause distress to be made a crime, via the Domestic Abuse Act, and these reforms will further ensure police and law enforcement agencies rightly investigate and prosecute these serious offences.

Tech abuse can take many forms, and Refuge hopes that these changes will signal the start of a much broader conversation on the need for strengthening the response to online abuse and harm.

DCMS Secretary of State Michelle Donelan said:

Through the Online Safety Bill, I am ensuring that tech firms will have to stop illegal content and protect children on their platforms, but we will also upgrade criminal law to prevent appalling offences like cyberflashing.

With these latest additions to the Bill, our laws will go even further to shield women and children, who are disproportionately affected, from this horrendous abuse once and for all.

The government will bring forward the wider package of changes as soon as parliamentary time allows and will announce further details in due course.

Notes to editors

• The law recognises that intimate image abuse is harmful and wrong and these reforms will build on government action to address the ever-evolving nature of these problems in the digital era. This Government has taken steps to update offences that tackle “revenge pornography” and voyeurism, which are used to deal with intimate image abuse alongside other offences such as harassment, malicious communications, blackmail, and “coercive or controlling behaviour”.
• The Law Commission’s detailed review included a three-month public consultation, which closed on 27 May 2021, receiving 354 written responses from members of the public, professionals and organisations including legal professionals, the judiciary, parliamentarians, police, academics, medical professionals, and victim support groups. The final report can be found here.
• We have already taken significant action to protect and support victims:
  • Increasing funding for victim support services to £460m over the next three years. We are using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/25 – a 43 percent increase over the next three years.
  • Working with Rape Crisis England & Wales to develop and deliver a 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line;
  • Publishing the all-crime and adult rape delivery data dashboard, to increase transparency on how the police and Crown Prosecution Service are tackling rape and sexual violence;
  • Extended the time limit for victims of domestic abuse to seek justice and taken action to protect women from harassment when they are breastfeeding in a public place.
  • Rolled out pre-recorded cross-examination and re-examination for vulnerable witnesses to every Crown Court in England and Wales. The measures makes the experience of giving evidence to the courts less daunting, helping witnesses and victims give their best evidence.
  • Introducing new pilots at three Crown Courts to give rape victims enhanced support to help to drive up prosecutions and convictions.  This includes specialist trauma training for staff and new video technology to take advantage of the rapid rollout of pre-recorded cross-examination for victims of rape.
• Last month, we launched the ‘ENOUGH’ campaign to tackle violence against women and girls. The campaign gives bystanders safe ways to intervene if they witness violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment on the street, unwanted touching, sharing intimate images of someone without their consent and coercive control in a relationship.
• Through the government’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the Home Office increased its funding to the Revenge Porn Helpline in 2021/2 to £120,000 to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing. Under the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, the Home Office increased this further to £150,000 in 2022/3. Since 2015 when the Helpline was established it has supported nearly 16,000 people and removed over 270,000 individual pieces of content.

• All eligible people – including those in at risk groups, pregnant women, and aged 50 or over – urged to get their free flu vaccine
• Many schoolchildren and 2 and 3-year-old preschoolers are eligible for nasal spray flu vaccines
• UKHSA indicators have been met in England leading to the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer authorising antiviral medicines on prescription in primary care settings, in line with pre-pandemic seasons
• Flu is now circulating at higher levels than recent seasons

All those eligible for the flu vaccine have been urged to come forward as cases rise to levels not seen since before the pandemic.

So far this year, flu vaccine uptake in eligible groups is similar to the last couple of years, although there is a particular need for pre-schoolers, pregnant women and those in the health and social care workforces to take up the offer.

Latest UKHSA data shows there have been jumps in emergency department flu attendances and hospital admissions in the last week. The intensive care admission rate is now higher for flu than for Covid.

In the week 14 to 20 November 2022:

• The hospital admission rate for flu increased to 24 per million population, up from 15 per million the previous week. The highest rates were in the under 5s followed by the 75 years plus group. The Covid rate was 44 per million population.
• The intensive care and high dependency care for influenza increased to 21 per 10 million population compared to 13 per 10 million population in the previous week. The highest rates were in the under 5s followed by the 65 years plus group. The Covid rate was 17 per 10 million population.

Those aged 2 and 3 years old are eligible for nasal spray flu vaccines, with parents and guardians also urged to book appointments to ensure the younger age group is protected.

With both flu and Covid cases both circulating this winter, it is also vital all those eligible get both vaccines as soon as possible.

Due to the increase in levels of flu circulating in the community, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has recommended that it is now appropriate for antiviral medicines to be prescribed in primary care settings.

Those eligible for antivirals if they have flu include patients in clinical at-risk groups as well as any who are at risk of severe illness and complications from flu if not treated. This includes people in those groups who present with symptoms of flu and those who have been exposed to flu-like illnesses from someone they live with, including residents of care homes.

As has happened in flu seasons before the pandemic, following an UKHSA recommendation, the Chief Medical Officer together with the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer have issued an alert to the NHS notifying the healthcare system that antiviral medicines can now be prescribed and supplied for cases of community acquired influenza.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said:

Flu and Covid are both circulating. We are currently seeing higher rates of flu at this time of year than usual.

It is important those eligible have their flu jab as soon as they can. Vaccines are the best defence against these viruses. The most effective approach is to get vaccinated before it is circulating at very high rates.

As flu cases have risen and in order to protect the most vulnerable – in line with pre-COVID flu seasons antiviral medicines can now be prescribed in primary care settings such as GPs and pharmacies to those eligible who are most at risk to the complications of flu.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

Flu is a serious virus and, while we haven’t seen the number of cases we’re used to over the last couple of years, it is starting to circulate at high levels this season.

Thankfully we have the tools to protect those most at risk to flu. Thanks to our fantastic vaccination campaign, more than 17 million flu jabs have been given in England this season already.

For all those eligible who have not yet come forward for their free winter vaccines for flu and Covid, please do not delay in coming forward for your jab. It could not be easier.

In England, the first weekly winter update shows there were an average of 344 patients a day with flu in hospital last week, more than ten times the number seen at the beginning of December last year.

In October, a new country-wide marketing campaign urging millions of eligible people to get their flu and Covid booster vaccines to top up their immunity was launched.

Building on the success of the 2021/22 Covid vaccination campaign, the campaign stressed that the protection provided by vaccines wanes over time, so everyone eligible should boost their immunity by getting both vaccines ahead of a difficult winter.

Dr Mary Ramsay, Director for Immunisation & Programmes at UKHSA:

Our surveillance shows recent increases in laboratory and clinical influenza indicators across England, particularly NHS emergency department attendances, hospitalisations and intensive care. Alongside older adults, flu rates are rapidly rising in younger children. Vaccination remains critical and I urge everyone eligible to take up the offer.

Flu antivirals are effective in helping to keep people out of hospital and preventing the virus spreading to other more vulnerable household and family members. Now that we are seeing flu increasing it’s important that GPs consider the possibility of flu in respiratory patients and the use of antivirals in line with national guidance, particularly if they have ruled out COVID-19.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said:

The first weekly data this year shows that flu is already with us as we enter what could be the most challenging winter in NHS history, with hundreds of beds a day already occupied with patients with flu.

Flu can be extremely serious for lots of people, so pharmacies and GPs will now be able to prescribe antivirals to those most at risk of its complications to help people avoid the need for hospital care.

But the best way people who are eligible can protect themselves is by getting vaccinated without delay – there are thousands of sites across the country offering flu and covid jabs so please book in today if you haven’t already.

The alert concerning flu antiviral medicine has been issued to primary care settings including GPs and community pharmacies in England.

The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with the manufacturers of antiviral medicines, used in the treatment of flu, to monitor stocks and ensure that there are adequate supplies of these medicines available to meet UK demand.

The prescription and supply of antivirals in primary care settings is in line with NICE guidance.

• Antiviral medicines do not work like a vaccine which helps to stop you from getting the flu, but they can reduce the severity of the disease if you are treated early.

• Antiviral medicines may be prescribed at any time in the secondary care setting for patients with suspected seasonal influenza infection. In primary care, once it has been confirmed that flu is circulating in the community, antiviral medicines may be prescribed for patients in “clinical at-risk groups” as well as any who are at risk of severe illness and/or complications from flu if not treated.

• This alert is issued based on advice from UKHSA, which monitors the level of flu circulating in the community based on a range of different indicators. This includes the number of positive tests for flu, the number of acute respiratory outbreaks reported, hospital admissions, and the number of GP consultations for flu like illness.

• The alert can be found here: https://www.cas.mhra.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=103217

• Link to latest weekly UKHSA national flu and Covid surveillance report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-published