Clause 3 - General duties of Ofcom
Communications Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Before I interrupted myself, I was saying at our earlier sitting that the Government's response to the Joint Committee was that they did not wish to attach greater weight to Ofcom's duty to further the interests of consumers through competition. The Government said:
''We are sure that the Committee will recognise how important it is that the duties properly reflect the breadth of all OFCOM's responsibilities, both economic and cultural''.
Indeed, there is no dissent on my part or anyone's part that the duties need to reflect the breadth of responsibility. The Government continue:
''and follow the proposition set out in the White Paper that each duty is of equal weight.''
My proposition is not that the duties have different weight, but that their structure should reflect the structure under which Ofcom should discharge its responsibilities. For example, its duty to protect the public against unwarranted infringements of privacy is no less important than its duty to further the interests of consumers, although some may argue that it is. My argument is that the duty to secure against unwarranted infringements of privacy does not represent the primary duty of Ofcom, but is a specific qualification to be set against the manner in which the regulator should approach the tasks. Listing the duties together would not necessarily mean that Ofcom would assume that it should attach exactly the same weight to the task of protecting the public against unwarranted infringements of privacy as it would to the task of promoting competition. That
would be ridiculous because promoting competition in markets is a predominant activity for Ofcom. In practice, even though the legislation treats those duties as being of equal value, Ofcom will recognise that its principal objective is to promote competition in order to further the interests of consumers.
Oftel has gone down that path. It has considered its duties under the Telecommunications Act 1984 and has concluded that, in current circumstances, it should treat the promotion of competition as its primary duty. Similarly, in the gas and electricity markets, Ofgem treats competition as its primary duty—but that does not mean that it has no other responsibilities. For example, Ofgem has to take its statutory environmental responsibilities into account. I want the Bill to reflect the way in which Ofcom will have to undertake its tasks.