Today, we are publishing our Statement of Charging Principles (SoCP), which represents the final regulatory document required to implement the online safety fees regime.
We have carefully considered responses to our consultation, which ran from the 21 November 2025 to 9 January 2026. This statement summarises the responses to this consultation, sets out our final position, and is accompanied by a final version of the SoCP.
We intend to continue our engagement with stakeholders through the implementation of the fees regime including supporting providers in navigating the notification process.
We note fee liable providers must register for the online safety fees portal and submit their notifications to Ofcom before the notification window for the initial charging year closes on 11 April 2026.
The Act requires that Ofcom’s operating costs in respect of online safety regulation are recovered through a fees regime imposed on certain providers of regulated services. The Act further requires that an SoCP must be in force before we can charge fees, that this SoCP should include the principles we propose to apply when charging fees, and these principles must meet certain criteria.
On 20 November 2025, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology laid The Online Safety Act 2023 (QWR Threshold) Regulations 2025 in Parliament, which set out the qualifying worldwide revenue threshold at which providers become liable to pay fees. Subject to the Parliamentary process, these Regulations came into effect on 11 December 2025. We are required by the Act to make reference to this threshold figure in our SoCP.