Clause 2 - Initial function of OFCOM
Office of Communications Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
Then let me elaborate on the amendment. The purpose of the transition is to identify Ofcom's size, its staff and where it should be located. Both the Bill and the Minister are silent on that point. If the transition phase is to be successful and staff morale boosted, good management principles, such as those in pages 40 and 41 of the Towers Perrin report, must be observed.
With the Bill, Government seek to empower Ofcom to act as sole regulator. It is therefore important that during the course of the year after the Bill is enacted, the public, the industry and viewers and listeners can see that the new regulator is making good progress towards fitting itself for the functions that the Bill bestows upon it. Were the communications Bill not to be brought before the House before the spring of this year and to achieve Royal Assent before mid–2003, it would be totally unacceptable for Office of Communications Act, as it will be, to remain on the statute book in its present form or amended. If the Government fail to act and do not introduce the communications Bill in Parliament within one year, the paving legislation should fall. Anything less than that would be totally unacceptable.