Office of Communications Bill [Lords]

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 6:15 pm on 29 January 2002.

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Photo of Anne McIntosh Anne McIntosh Shadow Spokesperson (Culture, Media and Sport) 6:15, 29 January 2002

Amendment No. 35 reflects my hope that Ofcom's decisions will be taken by a majority of its members. The reason is, simply, that two alternative models could be proposed in the setting up of Ofcom. One is that followed by the telecommunications industry with its single statutory regulator, the Director General of Telecommunications. The other is characterised by a more collegiate approach. My thinking in the amendment is that the powers of the new regulator are so extensive and so structured under the Bill that it would be appropriate for decisions to be reached by a majority of its members. By that, I mean that they would adopt the collegiate approach rather than the model used by the telecommunications regulator.

Obviously, that would mean, as in a Cabinet—something with which the Minister is familiar—once there had been a vote and the majority ruled, all members of Ofcom would be bound by the decision, including those who did not agree. That would be a more collegiate approach.

Amendment No. 15 concerns the decisions of Ofcom being published. I believe that it is the desire of those being regulated—I am sure that it will also be the wish of the regulators who are to be replaced by

Ofcom—that, in the interests of the greatest possible degree of accountability, Ofcom's decisions should be published. That was the Select Committee's desire. It said that the new regulator should have a

specific duty . . . to ensure that its governing body and its sub-commissions or committees meet in public unless the governing body is satisfied that, in the case of any particular issue under consideration, the interests of public disclosure are outweighed by the need for commercial confidentiality.

For reasons that the Committee will understand, it is not my wish to seek to compromise the commercial confidentiality of any company in any sector that will come under Ofcom's remit. However, I believe not only that its committees should meet in public, but that their decisions should be made public.

I pray in aid the Select Committee's further recommendation that

where any decision is reached by vote, the voting records are published

and that there should be a requirement

that all meetings with broadcasters to discuss their annual reports on delivery of programme statements are held in public.

It can only help the Minister in the jigsaw puzzle of putting the regulator together under the Bill that we refer to the publication of Ofcom's decisions, which, as I say in amendment No. 35, should be taken by a majority of its members. I think that all Committee members want Ofcom's decisions to be as accountable and public as possible.