Ofcom promised transparency notices for the UK's biggest platforms would follow 'soon after' it published its register of major services. The register landed in June 2026; the compliance calendar that promised an update on timing still has not given one.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. Ofcom's July 2025 statement on transparency reporting said it expected "to issue the first draft transparency notices to selected providers soon after we publish the register of categorised services" [1] (p.7, para 2.16). The register was published on 30 June 2026 [2]. Checked live today, Ofcom's own compliance calendar, which explicitly promised "an update on timelines for transparency reporting" once the register appeared, still marks that update "TBC" [3]. The actual update surfaced instead in an industry bulletin: draft notices begin 25 November 2026, almost five months after the register, with a consultation window not closing until 20 January 2027 [4]. Ofcom's own standalone statement page on the regime has not been updated since the day it launched [5]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
Transparency reporting is the part of the Online Safety Act meant to let outsiders check Ofcom's other work. Once a year, categorised services, the largest platforms by user numbers and the ones most capable of causing harm at scale, must be issued a transparency notice and then publish a report answering it, covering things like how their safety systems actually perform, not just what they say in policy documents [1] (p.3). Ofcom published the rules for how that would work on 21 July 2025: a Statement running to 45 pages, setting out what it would ask for and roughly when [1].
The timing promise in that Statement was tied to one trigger: the register of categorised services, the list that fixes which platforms are actually in scope. Ofcom said plainly that once that register existed, the notices would follow quickly [1] (p.7). The register took almost a year longer to arrive than the Statement itself, published on 30 June 2026, not in 2025 [2]. What happened after the register finally landed is what this piece checks.
The claims, tested
| Ofcom's own words | What checking it today shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "We expect to issue the first draft transparency notices to selected providers soon after we publish the register of categorised services" [1] (p.7, para 2.16), 21 Jul 2025 | The register was published 30 June 2026 [2]. Ofcom's own October 2026 bulletin says the draft notices, and a linked consultation, begin 25 November 2026 and do not close until 20 January 2027 [4] | "Soon after" turned out to mean nearly five months before drafts even open for comment, with formal notices and the reports themselves still to come |
| Compliance calendar: "After publication of the register of categorised services, we will also provide an update on timelines for transparency reporting", milestone marked "TBC", last updated 24 Aug 2026 [3] | Fetched live today, almost four months after the register, the calendar entry is unchanged and still reads "TBC". The promised update exists, but on a different page entirely [4] | The one document Ofcom named as the place this update would appear does not have it |
| The Statement's own live companion page, "Statement: Transparency Reporting", says "Today we are publishing our transparency statement and final transparency reporting guidance" [5], last updated 21 Jul 2025 | Fetched live today, the page's own "Last updated" stamp has not moved since the day it was first published, 15 months ago, despite the register, the calendar's unmet promise and the bulletin all arriving since [5] | Ofcom's designated statement page for the whole regime is frozen at launch |
The mistakes, counted
"Soon after" the register meant nearly five months, and only for the easy half (1). Ofcom's own Statement tied its timing promise to a single, named trigger: publication of the register of categorised services [1] (p.7, para 2.16). That register appeared on 30 June 2026 [2]. By Ofcom's own October bulletin, the draft notices promised to follow "soon after" do not begin until 25 November 2026, and even then only as drafts open for provider representations alongside a parallel consultation, both running to 20 January 2027 [4]. Formal notices, and the reports they require, come later still: the Statement itself says providers get "between 2 and 6 months" after formal notices to publish, which pushes the first actual transparency report well into 2027, roughly two years after the Statement that set this timetable [1] (p.7, para 2.17).
Two of Ofcom's own pages that exist to track this exact update do not carry it (2). The compliance calendar is explicit that it would be the place to look: "After publication of the register of categorised services, we will also provide an update on timelines for transparency reporting" [3]. Checked live today, that same calendar entry still reads "TBC", unrevised since the calendar was last updated on 24 August 2026, over three months after the register and the promise both existed [3]. The regime's own dedicated statement page fares no better: its "Last updated" stamp still reads 21 July 2025, the date the Statement was first published, meaning a reader who finds that page and trusts its currency learns nothing of the register, the November timetable or the January deadline [5]. The actual update exists, candidly and in detail, but only in an industry bulletin a reader would have no particular reason to find from either of the two pages built to answer this exact question [4].
Credit where due
Ofcom did not go quiet on this. The October 2026 industry bulletin lays out the timetable in specific, checkable terms: two named parallel processes, both opening 25 November and closing 20 January, one a public consultation on the impact assessment, the other direct draft notices to providers inviting feedback on format and scope [4]. The original Statement is also genuinely detailed rather than vague about what comes next: it commits to a fixed 2-to-6-month window between formal notices and published reports, and to publishing Ofcom's own first transparency report within a year of the first provider reports, giving the whole regime a visible shape rather than an open-ended one [1] (p.7, para 2.17). The problem here is not that Ofcom has gone silent on providers; it is that the two pages holding themselves out as the public record of this regime have not kept pace with what Ofcom is actually telling providers elsewhere.
Verdict
Four stars, two documented mistakes. The substance of the delay is modest by the standards of the Online Safety Act's wider rollout: a promise of action "soon after" a register has stretched to nearly five months before the first draft notices even open for comment, with formal notices and reports still to come. What makes it worth recording is the gap between that reality and Ofcom's own public account of it: a compliance calendar that named itself as the place an update would land, and has not had one, and a statement page that has not moved since the day it launched, while the regime it describes keeps moving without it.
The star score counts two documented mistakes. First, Ofcom's July 2025 Statement promised draft transparency notices "soon after" the register of categorised services was published; the register landed 30 June 2026 and the draft notices, per Ofcom's own October 2026 industry bulletin, do not begin until 25 November 2026, with a consultation window to 20 January 2027 and formal reports not due until 2 to 6 months after that. Second, two of Ofcom's own pages built to track this regime, the compliance calendar (which explicitly promised an update once the register was published) and the standalone transparency-reporting statement page, have not been updated to reflect any of this, checked live on 24 October 2026. Two mistakes in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the conduct of any named individual at Ofcom; the pages and documents checked are institutional publications, not any one official's decision. All sources below were fetched directly on 24 October 2026 and returned HTTP 200.
Sources
- Statement: Online Safety Transparency Reporting (PDF), Ofcom, published 21 July 2025 (timing promise, page 7, paragraphs 2.16 to 2.17; scope of categorised services, page 3)
- Online Safety: Register of categorised services and list of emerging Category 1 services, Ofcom, published 30 June 2026, last updated 28 September 2026
- Important dates for online safety compliance, Ofcom, published 17 October 2024, last updated 24 August 2026
- Online Safety industry bulletin - October 2026, Ofcom, published 15 October 2026
- Statement: Transparency Reporting, Ofcom, published 25 July 2024, last updated 21 July 2025