Comment by Lord Clement-Jones

With the rise of generative AI and high-quality deepfakes, impersonation has become a uniquely digital weapon of remarkable sophistication. A criminal can now wear a citizen’s face and speak with their voice to commit crimes or cause profound personal distress. This is no longer a theoretical risk: it is happening now at scale. This amendment creates a stand-alone offence that reflects this new reality, targeting the act of impersonation itself—the transactional communication carried out in another’s name without consent.