I am repeating the following Written Ministerial Statement made today in the other place by my Rt Honourable Friend the Minister for Creative Industries, Media and Arts Ian Murray MP:

The Online Advertising Taskforce is today publishing its Progress Report for 2025, summarising work carried out since publication of its last Progress Report covering 2023-24.

The Taskforce brings government and the advertising industry together to help improve trust, transparency and accountability in advertising. It specifically works to reduce harms, tackle illegal advertising and minimise children being served advertising for products and services illegal to sell to them.

Six industry-led working groups have continued to work across our priority areas to improve the evidence, develop and enhance voluntary initiatives or standards, and identify any gaps in industry initiatives where they already exist. These groups have membership from across the online advertising ecosystem, including regulators and government, with working groups covering; age assurance, the use of AI, influencer marketing, information sharing to counter malvertising, the Internet Advertising Bureau UK’s Gold Standard, and principles for intermediaries and platforms in their hosting of online adverts.

I chaired meetings of the Taskforce on 10 November 2025 and 26 February 2026, and commend the group for the progress they have led across the online advertising ecosystem.

Specifically, I want to highlight progress to understand the impact of AI in advertising, and welcome the publication of Advertising Association’s Best Practice Guide for the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Advertising, which was developed under the auspices of the Taskforce’s AI Working Group and is now being adopted across the sector. Similarly, the Influencer Marketing Working Group has driven adoption of the Influencer Marketing Code of Conduct which the Taskforce estimates to now cover over 50% of the relevant market. I also welcome indicative findings from the Taskforce’s Age Assurance Working Group that online and platform targeting tools are largely effective in ensuring children are not served adverts for age-restricted products. Finally, the Information Sharing Working Group has made significant progress in removing barriers to cross platform information sharing on malvertising, with a live pilot already allowing real time information sharing between trusted partners. Further details of the focus and achievements of working groups are set out in the Progress Report.

While I warmly welcome this progress, there remains significant work to do. The continued work of the Taskforce and its working groups is vital for understanding and addressing issues in the online advertising sector, and the Progress Report published today presents a forward plan for 2026.

As part of that, I am keen to ensure that the Taskforce increases focus on transparency in the online advertising ecosystem, with particular work to tackle fraudulent advertising. In response to this renewed focus, the Taskforce has agreed to stand-up a new Ad Fraud and Standards Working Group to focus specifically on issues of fraud, scams and malvertising in online advertising. This group will be co-chaired by government and the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, and will report back to Ministers in 2027.

The Progress Report is published on GOV.UK today and I will place a copy of the report in the Libraries of both Houses.

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