Will Ofcom be broken up ?

Under a future Conservative goverment, the UK communications regulator Ofcom would be restricted to its narrow technical and enforcement roles.

In his speech the Conservative party leader David Cameron had this to say about Ofcom:

OFCOM is the regulator for the communications industry, and it's clear that it has an important technical function.
It monitors the plurality of media provision for consumers.
It licenses the spectrum in the UK. And it sets the charges and the price caps for BT's control of so much of the industry's infrastructure.

OFCOM also has an enforcement function - ruling on breaches of the broadcasting code for instance.

These matters relate to the operations of private companies in a commercial market and it is therefore right that they are free from political influence.

But Jeremy Hunt has concluded that OFCOM currently has many other responsibilities that are matters of public policy, in areas that should be part of a national debate, for example the future of regional news or Channel 4. These should not be determined by an unaccountable bureaucracy, but by minsters accountable to Parliament.

So with a Conservative Government, OFCOM as we know it will cease to exist. Its remit will be restricted to its narrow technical and enforcement roles. It will no longer play a role in making policy. And the policy-making functions it has today will be transferred back fully to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The full text of the speech 'People Power - Reforming Quangos' is available at
http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2009/07/
David_Cameron_People_Power_-_Reforming_Quangos.aspx