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The Rt. Hon. Patricia HewittRegulating UK Communications |
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Robin, thank you very much indeed for that introduction. And it's a great pleasure for me to be here this afternoon and I do want to thank the Consumers Association for hosting this extremely timely conference bringing you all together and for giving me and you an opportunity to hear Nicholas give that very lucid account of the really large scale reforms that are going on, driven by his Directorate in Brussels at the moment, in which we in the UK Government are playing an extremely active role. It is particularly good to see the Consumers Association taking the lead in helping to stimulate debate around the White Paper, because consumers are absolutely at the heart of the White Paper and will be central to the Bill on which we are now working which will implement the White Paper proposals. And just this morning we have seen another very useful contribution from the Consumers Association to our understanding of the whole issue of take up by consumers of digital tv. We've just published a new survey on consumer attitudes and concerns. I think that report confirms in many respects the enormous success that the digital tv industry has had in the UK. It's gone in just over 2 years from a standing start to 30% of all homes with digital tv, over half of all families with children. Which rather confirms what one American commentator said recently that in most households with children, it is the children who are the chief entertainment officers for the family. And they certainly are in mine! But what the survey also underlines is the real confusion and doubt and scepticism about the benefits of digitalisation in many parts of our population. And we'll look at the details of that survey with great interest as we develop more effective strategies for helping to promote, not just digital tv, but high speed digital networks into the home. All of us here, as we've been discussing this morning, know that there is an extraordinary revolution taking place in communications, particularly driven by the convergence of information and communications technology. Images, information, applications, services, all available through wired and wireless networks and through a whole variety of devices. In the first generation of access particularly to that Internet based world, it was of course America that led the way. Although thanks to the extraordinary fall in Internet access prices over the last 18 months or so, 6 or 7 Internet years I think, we are now catching up very fast in Internet PC based access. But in the next generation of multi media access it will be the UK that can draw ahead of the USA. Because access in the next generation will come through wireless devices, mobile devices and through digital tv. And we're ahead of the USA by 18 months or so on mobile wireless networks, and certainly one of the world leaders in digital tv. And it is for that reason that I am absolutely convinced that we will be one of the first countries in the world to deliver on the vision of multi media services available anywhere, anytime, through any device. It's the Martini vision - anyplace, anytime, but also any device. Now, all of us have got a double interest in this communications revolution. We have an interest as consumers. We want the widest possible choice of services. Where we don't want to be forced to have more services than we want. We want the best possible prices. We want networks that meet our different needs. It maybe plain old voice telephony, but it will also make mobile services and high speed broadband. We certainly want outstanding customer service. As with far too many companies, we don't get it, and we want an effective complaints system if something goes wrong. But we also have an interest as citizens. Because broadcasting and communication aren't just another sector of the economy. They are central to our democratic and our social life, they help us to create shared experience and shared meaning. And of course they provide their accurate and impartial news services. Particularly important when there seems to be some suggestion in the media that there is going to be a general election fairly soon. Now, we set out in the White Paper, 3 overarching goals for the new regulatory framework. First of all to make the UK the most dynamic and competitive communications and media market in the world. Secondly to ensure universal access to a choice of diverse services at the highest property. And third to ensure that our interests, our double interests, as citizens and as consumers, are effectively safeguarded. Let me say a bit about how we are going to do this. Although I'm certainly not going to try and cover in any detail all of the White Paper's proposals, we can come back in the question and answer session in a minute to points that you are particularly interested in. But let me start just by stressing the importance of competition here. Competition is vital if we are going to develop and sustain a dynamic market, if we're going to get the best results for consumers everywhere, by promoting choice, by encouraging innovation and of course driving down prices. So wherever it is possible and appropriate we want to see competition given the fullest possible scope. But of course what we've got at the moment is a different competition framework, for broadcasting and for telecommunications. What we now have to do is create a single regulatory framework that does create drive-through competition wherever, as I said, that's possible and appropriate and that is particularly important when it comes to ensuring consumer access to networks. If you look for instance at the whole issue of local loop unbundling. We've had this question over the last six months, one to which Nicholas referred in that very long list of existing directives and regulations. Local loop unbundling is a critical part of driving competition further and faster into fixed wireless network. But the only way in which we can open those networks up to competition is by having tough intelligent regulation. That's what Oftel, with the Government's full support, has been delivering. There are other ways as well of ensuring that we get that highly competitive marketplace, and for instance the structural changes upon which BT has now embarked, and particularly the creation of Netco, the separate wholesale company, will be a major step forward in creating a more competitive, more transparently, competitive environment. But of course competition isn't enough, because competition doesn't necessarily deliver services to every corner of our island. So we will continue as a matter of principle to ensure that everybody has got easy access to communications services. Either free at point of delivery in the case of public service broadcasting, or at an affordable price in the case of other services. And that universal service principle is more than 99% of the population access to public service radio and television broadcasting and of course it gives universal access to telephone services. We will continue that universal service obligation, that principle, and of course we'll keep it under review along with my European partners so that we add new services to the universal service principle as that becomes the appropriate thing to do. But there's another area of course in which competition by itself isn't enough and that's the area in what we now know as broadcasting where, as we've see all too often, the pressure to serve consumer demand can simply drive content companies into if you like super serving the middle ground. And the goal of diverse services of high quality can be missed. So we need some regulation, positive content regulation if you like, to ensure the variety, the choice, the impartiality, that we also want as citizens. Let me say a bit more about that crucial area of broadcasting, or as it's certainly currently known as we prepare the instructions and drafting of the Bill licensable content. And what we are proposing there is a 3 tier system of regulation. And at the heart of tier 1 that will apply to all broadcasters will be the provision of fair, impartial and accurate news. But this system, this tier 1 and tier 2 and 3 system, is completely new for broadcasting regulation. And what we're trying to do is to balance the freedom, that you Robert, and all other broadcasters need with the wider responsibility that you and particularly public service broadcasters have, not to abuse these extremely powerful media. So in tier 1, alongside the duty of impartiality will be rules to protect minors, to ensure access to people with disabilities, equal opportunities, consumer protection, basic negative content regulation, consumer protection, compliance with European obligations. So tier 1 will be the bedrock of that new regulatory structure. In the second tier Ofcom, responsible for ensuring the delivery of those public service obligations that are easily quantifiable and measurable. Such things like quotas for independent regional and original productions, targets for regional programming, available in news and current affairs in peak time. Tier 3 deals with our public service broadcasters. And it was clear from the concentration there is near universal support for high quality diverse public service broadcasting. But what we don't want to do, when we look at the quality of aspects of public service broadcasting, is just carry on and go back to the days of box ticking detailed regulation. What we're doing instead is really challenging the public service broadcasters to develop statements of programme policy and then self regulatory mechanisms to ensure that their aspirations as well as ours to quality will indeed be delivered on. And we'll be giving them really much more freedom to regulate themselves on these qualitative issues that has been possible under the current system. With Ofcom of course having if it is necessary some backstop powers. But let me clarify one confusion that I think has arisen in some quarters, we are not proposing to regulate the Internet. When we talk about licensable content we're talking about what we all generally know and love as broadcasting today. We're not proposing to extend that system into Internet content. There, as we've said, certainly since we were elected, the appropriate approach is really one of co-regulation and we've had, I think, some considerable success with establishing and supporting the Internet Watch Foundation to deal with the issue of illegal content on the Internet, that may of course be coming from organisations and servers that are well outside this country's remit. But we're working collaboratively with the industry we can ensure proper protection for our consumers and in particular children. So, that's a summary of what we want to do to try and protect a large part of our interest as citizens. Let me now say a little bit more about how we protect, or how we propose to protect, our interest as consumers, the other central focus of the White Paper. First of all service delivery standards. And these apply not just to telecoms or what we now think of as telecoms, but also to subscription and paid for content services, including satellite and cable television. What we're proposing there is a new industry led scheme, possibly in the form of an ombudsman, that will give consumers easy access to complaint resolution and redress, where they haven't been able to get satisfaction from the company concerned. And I think that will be an important addition to consumer protection in this sector. If the industry doesn't come up, or parts of the industry don't come up with a satisfactory proposal, Ofcom will have powers to develop its own scheme. But I have to say I'm pretty confident that the industry will continue to make good progress in this and Oftel recently published a consultation paper on a telecoms ombudsman's scheme and if that's successful it may well become the forerunner for a wider scheme under the Ofcom umbrella. Secondly, consumer research. And we're proposing to make that a major feature of Ofcom's remit. We think it is crucial when public attitude's and demands are changing so extraordinarly quickly that Ofcom should depend upon properly resourced, well carried out research to understand what it is that consumers want. And we'll make sure that they've got the results, but also that they have a duty to publish the results of their research so that public debate is informed in the same way that Ofcom's and judgements will be. Thirdly, complaints about content. We think it is essential that broadcasters take on some of the responsibility here and that's why we've proposed that they should in the first instance handle those complaints that fall within their direct responsibility. But Ofcom as well has to have the power to require information and to act where there may have been a serious breach of the content rules, or where there is a risk of repeat damage to the public. And either Ofcom or a designated co-regulatory body will also need to have the authority to handle all advertising complaints because of course most advertisements are repeated and shown on more than one channel. And it will also need to have clear and effectively ring-fenced mechanisms for handling complaints of an infringement and fairness and privacy. Finally on the issue of representation. Because effective consumer representation is going to be vital in ensuring that Ofcom does it's job properly, but consumer interests are properly articulated. And we've made that a priority in opening up other markets notably in the utilities. Of course in this sector the issues are very complex because of the range of issues, some of them very technical, that Ofcom will be dealing with. We've proposed in the White Paper a single consumer panel that is really designed to advise Ofcom on the service delivery side. Well there may well be some consumer interest in content which will include things like choice and information and quality of service and value of money on which you will all want to take a view. We will given them a high degree of independence and visibility, and we're also proposing that that panel should have its own research powers and the power to publish it's own opinions and of course getting reasonable access to information from Ofcom itself. On the citizens side, that broader range of democratic interests in the content side, we suggested in the White Paper a rather more flexible arrangement with Ofcom able to establish different bodies to reflect the public interest. We haven't tried to prescribe what those should be. But we've had a lot of interest in that area, a number of different suggestions including for example, expanding the consumer panel to cover content of citizen issues, or perhaps in parallel establishing a separate citizens broadcasting panel, roughly equivalent to the consumer panel. And we'll look at those responses and suggestions very carefully as we move ahead on the Bill. We've just finished a major consultation exercise on the White Paper. We've had about 250 very detailed responses to the White Paper. We've had 6,500 responses commenting specifically on religious broadcasting. A matter of great concern to a number of people. It has been particularly helpful to have had very detailed, and well argued responses if I can say so, from the Consumers Association and the NCC. And we're looking at all of that very carefully at the moment. We've put all the organisational responses on the website, www.communicationswhitepaper.gov.uk, if you're not already familiar with it on a daily basis. We published yesterday the executive summary of those responses. But the database which you can access with our website makes it possible to search through the responses on different issues. The whole process of creating this White Paper has also been a breakthrough quite honestly in joining up different parts of Government. Particularly appropriate for a convergent sector. We've got DTI and the Department for Culture and Media and Sport working together very closely at the Ministerial level but also of course at the official level. And we've now, having had such a successful joint team on the White Paper, we've now created a joint team to prepare for legislation. That in turn is working very closely with the existing regulators, Oftel, the ITC, the Radiocommunications Agency, the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Radio Authority. Each of those has got a crucial role to play, both in ensuring that we get the details of the Bill right, not a trivial issue at all, but also in helping to pave the way for the creation of the new organisation Ofcom. And it is absolutely crucial that we think afresh and we're doing this, about how Ofcom should be designed, structured, as an organisation. We don't simply want to create a merger of the existing bodies, and find ourselves with a regulator that effectively has got 5 different silos within it. It will be a new organisation albeit one building upon the very strong foundations and the expert staffing that exists within those five bodies. This is an extraordinarily exciting time and its important I think that we do continue to look long term at the changes taking place and not allow ourselves to become obsessed as I think some of our written press in particular have done by events in the market and in the technology and telecommunications sector. Tough though that is for the companies and the shareholders concerned. The fact is that what is going on in the communications world creates an extraordinary opportunity for the UK to prove, indeed to transform people's quality of life, to open up enormous opportunities for business in the wealth of creation and above all to enrich our social and our democratic networks. We're determined to seize that opportunity for ourselves, but also for Europe as a whole. And I look forward very much to working even more closely with all of you here to ensure that we get a crucial part of the picture, the regulatory framework as right as we can possibly get it. |
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Other speeches by The Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt
(the following are available from the archive) |
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