Contents

• What Is Ofcom?
• What Are The Duties Of Ofcom?
• What Are The Resources Of Ofcom?
• What Is The Structure Of Ofcom?
• Where Is Ofcom?

WHAT IS OFCOM?

The Office of Communications (Ofcom) is the UK regulator for both broadcasting and telecommunications. It embraces the work of five previous regulatory bodies:

• The Independent Television Commission (ITC)
• The Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC)
• The Office of Telecommunications (Oftel)
• The Radio Authority (RAu)
• The Radiocommunications Agency (RA)

Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002, but received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003. It commenced the process of taking over from the five legacy regulators on 18 September 2003 and took on its full powers on 29 December 2003.

WHAT ARE THE DUTIES OF OFCOM?

It is Part 1 - covering Sections 1-31 - of the Communications Act that describe the functions of Ofcom.

Section 3 (1) of the Act provides Ofcom with two broad, over-arching functions when it states:
"It shall be the principal duty of OFCOM, in carrying out their functions-
(a) to further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters; and
(b) to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition".

There are some interesting issues here.

First, this duality of the interests of citizens and consumers respectively counterpoises interests which are not necessarily coincident or even congruent. They may well diverge or conflict and there is no mechanism in the Act for reconciling them.

Second, it is not clear when the promotion of competition would or would not be appropriate in furthering the interests of consumers. Indeed it might be that the issue is more complex and is not simply a matter of promoting competition of itself but of promoting a particular form of competition to achieve a particular objective.

Section 3(2) of the Act sets out six "things" which Ofcom is required to secure in carrying out its broad functions. In summary form, these things are:

• the optimal use of the electro-magnetic spectrum
• the availability of a wide range of electronic communications services
• the availability of a wide range of television and radio services
• the maintenance of plurality in the provision of television and radio services
• protection against offensive and harmful material in television and radio services
• protection against unfair treatment or infringements of privacy in television and radio services

This brief statement of Ofcom's duties in Sections 3(1) & 3(2) of the Act is further complicated by Section 3 (4) which lists no less than 13 factors to which it must have regard. In summary form, these factors are:

• the promotion of public service broadcasting
• the promotion of competition
• the promotion of self-regulation
• the encouragement of investment and innovation
• the encouragement of high speed data transfer services
• the use of the electro-magnetic spectrum
• the securing of appropriate standards in television and radio
• the protection of children
• the needs of the disabled, the elderly and those with low incomes
• the prevention of crime and disorder
• the opinions of consumers and citizens
• the interests of those is different parts of the UK, those from ethnic communities, and those in rural and urban areas
• the extent to which matters are reasonably practicable.

In addition to all these duties, Section 11 of the Act places upon Ofcom a specific duty to promote media literacy.

It will be seen that Ofcom has an enormously wide range of duties. Indeed Ofcom itself has calculated that in all the regulator has 263 statutory duties, compared to 128 imposed on the five earlier regulators.

How are these multitudinous duties to be exercised? The Act provides in Section 3(3) that Ofcom will follow "the best regulatory practice", specifically the five principles of regulatory best practice:

• transparency
• accountability
• proportionality
• consistency
• targeting

WHAT ARE THE RESOURCES OF OFCOM?

Ofcom is an independent statutory corporation accountable to Parliament. Most of its funding comes from licences fees paid by broadcasting and telecommunications companies regulated by Ofcom. Other specific streams of work are funded by grants-in-aid, such as one from BERR for management of spectrum and one from DCMS for the promotion of media literacy.

Ofcom's operating expenditure for 2007/08 was £130 million.

Ofcom has some 810 professional staff. This is some 470 less than the total personnel of the five legacy regulators.

WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF OFCOM?

Ofcom operates through the Ofcom Board which meets monthly and consists of 10 individuals. It is chaired by Lord (David) Currie. Colette Bowe - formerly Chair of the Communications Consumer Panel and a current member of the Ofcom Board - has been selected as Chair-elect.

Link: names and biographies of main Board members click here

The Ofcom Board devolves responsibility for content issues to a Content Board of 11 individuals chaired by the Ofcom Vice-Chair Philip Graf.

Link: names and biographies of Content Board members click here

The Ofcom Executive consists of six individuals headed by the Chief Executive Ed Richards.

Link: names and biographies of Executive members click here

Roger (left) with then Ofcom CEO Stephen Carter (centre)
and Internet Watch Foundation CEO Peter Robbins (left)

Ofcom is structured around two Executives:

• Policy Executive - comprising:
  • Strategy & Market Developments
  • Competition & Markets
  • Contents & Standards

• Operations Executive - comprising:
  • Operations
  • Commercial
  • Human Resources

Other bodies in the Ofcom structure - all required by the Act - are:

The Consumer Panel

This is chaired by Anna Bradley and has ten members.

Link: names and biographies of Consumer Panel members click here

The Advisory Committee on Elderly and Disabled Persons

The four Advisory Committees for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Regulatory Assessment Committee

WHERE IS OFCOM?

Ofcom is headquartered in a rather splendid building in the heart of London within sight of St Paul's Cathedral. It is actually on the south side of the River Thames by Southwark Bridge, opposite the "Financial Times" building. It has a most unoriginal name, Riverside House, but a most original design (sweeping riverside supports like huge longitudinal lines on a globe). Originally this building was a BT premise, which once housed the company's London District headquarters, but it has been totally refitted and redesigned.

Ofcom also has regional offices for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland plus filed operations offices for the north and the south of England.

Link: details of office locations click here

ROGER DARLINGTON

Last modified on 29 December 2008

Links:
National Audit Office report on creation of Ofcom click here
Full text of the Communications Act click here
"An Introduction To The Communications Act" click here
"An Introduction To The Communications Consumer Panel" click here
Ofcom web site click here
Communications Consumer Panel web site click here
Ofcomwatch weblog click here
CommsWatch weblog click here