Statement: Online safety fees - Notification guidance

Today we are publishing our second statement to implement the online safety fees regime. Given the complementary nature of the Qualifying Worldwide Revenue (QWR) and Notification guidance documents, we have decided to publish a single statement.

We have carefully considered responses to our public consultations, which ran from 18 July 2025 to 10 September 2025 for the QWR guidance and 1 September 2025 to 1 October 2025 for the Notification guidance. This statement summarises the outcomes of these consultations, sets out our final positions and includes a final version of both our QWR and Notification guidance in the annexes.

We intend to continue our engagement with stakeholders through the implementation of the fees regime including supporting providers in navigating the notification process. 

The Act requires that Ofcom’s operating costs for the online safety regime are recovered through fees imposed on providers of regulated services.  

Providers are required to notify Ofcom in certain circumstances in relation to the fees regime, unless they are exempt. Their notifications must include details of all their regulated services, and (in most cases) details of their qualifying worldwide revenue (QWR). 

On 26 June 2025, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology laid The Online Safety Act 2023 (Fees Notification) Regulations 2025 in Parliament, which describe the supporting evidence, documents and other information which providers must supply to Ofcom when making a fees regime notification, and the manner in which these must be provided to Ofcom.  

These regulations require providers to supply, amongst other things, evidence substantiating the details of all regulated services provided by the provider and the provider’s QWR for the qualifying period that relates to the relevant charging year. 

Subject to the Parliamentary process, these Regulations will come into effect on 14 September 2025.  

In our statement on Online Safety Fees and Penalties, we committed to consulting on further guidance to aid providers in the notification process. This consultation sets out our proposed guidance, including on the process for preparing and submitting fees-related notifications, and on the details and substantiating evidence that should be included.