Online Safety Act 2023

110Senior managers’ liability: information offencesU.K.
This section has no associated Explanatory Notes

(1)In this section “an individual named as a senior manager of an entity” means an individual who, as required by an information notice, is named as a senior manager of an entity in a response to that notice (see section 103).

(2)An individual named as a senior manager of an entity commits an offence if—

(a)the entity commits an offence under section 109(1) (failure to comply with information notice), and

(b)the individual has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that offence being committed.

(3)It is a defence for an individual charged with an offence under subsection (2) to show that the individual was a senior manager within the meaning of section 103 for such a short time after the information notice in question was given that the individual could not reasonably have been expected to take steps to prevent that offence being committed.

(4)An individual named as a senior manager of an entity commits an offence if—

(a)the entity commits an offence under section 109(3) (false information), and

(b)the individual has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that offence being committed.

(5)An individual named as a senior manager of an entity commits an offence if—

(a)the entity commits an offence under section 109(4) (encrypted information), and

(b)the individual has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that offence being committed.

(6)An individual named as a senior manager of an entity commits an offence if—

(a)the entity commits an offence under section 109(5) (destruction etc of information), and

(b)the individual has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that offence being committed.

(7)It is a defence for an individual charged with an offence under subsection (4), (5) or (6) to show that the individual was not a senior manager within the meaning of section 103 at the time at which the act constituting the offence occurred.

(8)It is a defence for an individual charged with an offence under this section to show that the individual had no knowledge of being named as a senior manager in a response to the information notice in question.

(9)See also section 201 (supplementary provision about defences).

Commencement Information

I1S. 110 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(1)

I2S. 110 in force at 10.1.2024 by S.I. 2023/1420, reg. 2(z11)