Government spent £2m on porn block before policy was dropped

Minister reveals sum paid to BBFC to implement age verification

More than 2m of taxpayers' money was spent preparing for the pornography block before the policy was quietly dropped in early October, the government has revealed.

The bulk of the spending, 2.2m, was paid to the British Board for Film Classification to do the detailed work on the policy from 2016 onwards. Before then, additional costs were borne by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where civil servants were tasked with developing the proposals as part of their normal work.