Schedule 13: Penalties imposed by OFCOM under Chapter 6 of Part 7 Chapter 7: Committees, research and reports Section 157: OFCOM’s report about use of age assurance
This section requires OFCOM to produce and publish a report about the use of age assurance by providers of regulated services.
	Subsections (1) and (2) specify that the report should assess how providers of regulated services have used age assurance to comply with their duties, how effective the use of age assurance has been for that purpose, and whether there are factors that have prevented or hindered the effective use of age assurance for that purpose. The report must pay particular consideration to whether the costs to providers of using age assurance, or the need to protect users’ privacy, have prevented or hindered the effective use of age assurance.
	Subsection (3) specifies that OFCOM must publish one report within the period of 18 months beginning with the day on which sections 12 and 81(2) come into force, unless the Secretary of State requires the production of a further report, as set out in subsubsection (6).
	Subsections (4) and (5) set out consultation and procedural requirements.
	Subsections (6) and (7) provide that the Secretary of State may require OFCOM to produce and publish a further report in response to developments in age assurance technologies or evidence of the reduced effectiveness of such technologies. This cannot be required until at least three years after the date on which the first report is published, or more frequently than once every three years.