Schedule - Further provision about OFCOM

Part of Office of Communications [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 29 January 2002.

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Photo of Anne McIntosh Anne McIntosh Shadow Spokesperson (Culture, Media and Sport) 10:30, 29 January 2002

The amendments deal with some of the most significant provisions that we have yet reached, so I shall devote some time to explaining the reasons behind them.

Amendment No. 20 would bring the BBC within Ofcom's structure and remit and include members of the BBC board of governors in the schedule's provisions. The BBC should be brought within Ofcom's remit, and using the schedule to do that

may be justified. Amendment No. 13 would include in clause 2 a proposal that the Secretary of State should bring the board of governors within Ofcom's remit, while amendment No. 18 would include the board of governors in the definition of existing regulators.

We make these proposals because the Bill is silent about Ofcom's remit in respect of the board of governors. Only five of the current regulators are to be embraced and replaced by Ofcom and, in the fullness of time, subject to the main communications Bill. The Government have, however, made an even greater omission. We have an opportunity to consider where the BBC fits into the long-term scheme of things.

Miss Widdecombe, you will be familiar with the BBC charter established by the last Conservative Government, which currently provides for regulation. It is due to expire at the end of 2006, which means that the Government must produce a successor framework before the next general election. The Government have only three and a half years left in office—thank goodness—and it is unacceptable that they have not taken the opportunity offered by the Bill to discuss future regulation and the framework that governs the BBC.

I put on record my admiration for the BBC as an avid viewer of its programmes. I have said before that, as a Scot living in north Yorkshire, I do not subscribe to a digital service. I shall not be among the first to switch from analogue to digital unless the Government take a clear lead, which they have so far failed to do. I am perhaps a more avid BBC viewer than people who have access to digital or satellite television.