Damian Collins

Damian Noel Thomas Collins (born 4 February 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician who formerly served as a junior Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport between July and October 2022.

During his time as a student, Collins was captain of the St Benet's Hall team on two episodes of University Challenge in October 1994 and January 1995, during Jeremy Paxman’s first series of the show.

In 1995 Collins was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

He then studied Modern History at St Benet's Hall at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1996.

After graduating from the University of Oxford, Collins joined the Conservative Research Department (CRD) in 1996.

In 1999, Collins left Conservative Central Office to join the M&C Saatchi advertising agency and in 2008, Collins joined Lexington Communications as Senior Counsel.

From 2003 to 2004 Collins was the Political Officer of the Bow Group think tank, and contributed to its 2006 publication Conservative Revival: Blueprint for a Better Britain (Politico's Publishing, 2006).

At the 2005 general election, Collins stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Northampton North, where he finished in second place to sitting Labour MP Sally Keeble who was re-elected with a majority of 3,960 votes.

The committee's subsequent report on immersive and addictive technologies recommended a review of the Gambling Act 2005 in parliament to define loot boxes as a game of chance, and that "the malicious creation and distribution of deepfake videos should be regarded as harmful content" under the new Online Harms regime.

An inquiry into homophobia in sport concluded that "despite the significant change in society's attitudes to homosexuality in the last 30 years, there is little reflection of this progress being seen in football", recommending that "Football clubs should take a tougher approach to incidents of homophobic abuse, issuing immediate bans" and "It should be made clear that match officials should have a duty to report and document any kind of abuse at all levels."

An inquiry into doping in sport was launched following journalistic investigations from The Sunday Times and on ARD about the prevalence of doping in sport and the responsiveness of the World Anti-Doping Agency, UK Anti-Doping, and the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).

The committee's inquiry into equal pay at the BBC revealed evidence of pay discrimination at the BBC, and its report on TV licences for the over-75s criticised the BBC's decision to no longer fund all of these.

In May 2006, Collins was included on the "A-list" of Conservative parliamentary candidates, created following the election of David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party.

On 13 July 2006, Collins was selected as prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Folkestone and Hythe in Kent, succeeding as Conservative candidate for the seat to Michael Howard, a former Home Secretary and Leader of the Conservative Party, who had announced his decision to step down from the House of Commons.

He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Folkestone and Hythe since the 2010 general election.

Collins made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 27 May 2010 in the Queen's Speech debate.

He spoke about the new Conservative-Liberal Coalition Government’s energy and environmental policy, and his support for a new nuclear power station at Dungeness in his constituency.

On 12 July 2010, Collins became a member of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

On 10 September 2012, Collins was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers.

In July 2014, Collins was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond.

The report held responsible both the BBC and the Government for Opaque BBC Charter renewal negotiations in 2015, having led to the BBC becoming responsible for "administering the welfare benefits that should rightly only ever be implemented by the Government" which the BBC then found it could no longer fully fund due to the "disturbing picture of the BBC’s overall finances."

Following the death of a guest following filming for The Jeremy Kyle Show and the deaths of two former contestants in the dating show Love Island, Collins launched a parliamentary inquiry into reality television.

Jeremy Kyle refused to appear in front of the committee.

From 2016 to 2019, Collins was chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

In 2021, Collins chaired the UK Parliament Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill.

Collins was educated at St Mary's Roman Catholic High School, a state voluntary aided comprehensive school in the village of Lugwardine in Herefordshire, followed by Belmont Abbey School, a former boarding independent school in Hereford, where he studied for his A Levels.

In the 2016 EU referendum, Collins campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union.

In 2016 Collins was elected as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee and was re-elected unopposed following the 2017 general election of the newly renamed Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

Collins launched a high-profile inquiry into disinformation and fake news in the wake of allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, which also investigated the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and concluding that "legal liabilities should be established for tech companies to act against harmful or illegal content on their sites."

This led to the UK Government publishing the Online Harms White Paper.

He subsequently supported delivering the result of the referendum, for the UK to leave the EU, describing himself in July 2019 as "someone who voted Remain, but has always upheld the pledge I made at the last general election: to honour the result of the referendum."

He remained Chair until the dissolution of Parliament on 6 November 2019.

On 27 July 2021, Collins was elected Chair of the UK Parliament Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill, responsible for pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill.

In August 2022, Collins was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy) as part of the caretaker administration of outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

This includes responsibility for making the Online Safety Bill law.

He supported Liz Truss in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

He was reappointed to his ministerial office following her victory in the contest.

Collins was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for political and public service.

During his tenure as Committee Chair, Collins led several parliamentary inquiries:

The Select Committee's inquiry featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary film The Great Hack.