A conflict of interest occurs when an entity or individual becomes unreliable because of a clash between personal interests and professional duties and responsibilities. Project team members of the Age Assurance Technology Trial take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, in connection with their participation in the trial. This process is described in the Impartiality Report which was one of the first documents to be published on this site’s document library here.
This register plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency, accountability, and ethical decision-making processes during the Trial. It enables the project team to maintain a high standard of integrity, transparency and impartiality, helping to maintain trust in the outcomes of the trial.
The register is reviewed and completed as appropriate by all members of the project team and contractors, in line with the conflict of interest policy.
There is an initial deadline of January 31st 2025 for entries to this register for members of the project team already involved in delivery to allow for review by the Ethics Committee before publication below.
| Name | Project role and Organisation | Details of conflict | Action Taken |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iain Corby | WP3 lead covering stakeholder engagement – SafetyTech Limited | STL provides the services of Iain Corby to act as a director and Executive Director of The AVPA Ltd – The Age Verification Providers Association. AVPA members are expected to be participants in the trial | Iain’s role is restricted to stakeholder engagement and he will be excluded from the testing of any age assurance system |
| Iain Corby | WP3 lead covering stakeholder engagement – SafetyTech Limited | The AVPA is a member of euCONSENT ASBL. It’s Executive Director, Iain Corby, is its Secretary General. euCONSENT may submit its tokenized age assurance ecosystem for assessment by the trial | Iain’s role is restricted to stakeholder engagement and he will be excluded from the testing of any age assurance system. He will not be part of the process for euCONSENT to submit its solution for testing. |
| Tony Allen | Project Director | The ACCS specialise in providing testing and certification services to age assurance companies | ACCS has a public register of all clients, available here: https://accscheme.com/registry/. The Trial has been opened to all organisations, not just ACCS clients. Further information on ACCS’ governance and impartiality is available here: https://accscheme.com/governance/ |
| George Billinge | WP1 co-lead | Illuminate Tech (IT) is an Associate Member of the Online Dating and Discovery Association (ODDA); ODDA members have at times opposed age assurance requirements in the UK. IT advises Innovate-UK funded Project DefAI, delivered by the AVPA and ACCS, on ethics, data collection, and outreach. IT have provided workshops on the UK’s Online Safety Act to organisations including OneID, a digital identity / age assurance provider. | As at 3 February Ethics Committee other than George and Asad agreed this may be an apparent but is not actual conflict, and no further action required at this time. |
| John Rouse | Chair of Project Advisory Board | In his capacity as an expert at countering online child sexual abuse and exploitation, Jon is involved in a number of organisations that are publicly supportive of age assurance | |
| Professor Toby Walsh | Independent Reviewer | Prof Walsh declares that he receives funding from the Australian Research Council in the form of an ARC Laureate Fellowship (FL200100204) for a project on “Trustworthy AI”, from Google.org for a project with Infoxchange on recommender systems, and from CSIRO/NSF research collaboration program for a project on fair resource allocation. | Not considered to be a real conflict of interest with the Age Assurance Technology Trial |
