The Creation Of Ofcom

Download or read book The Creation of Ofcom written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-05 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ofcom = Office of Communications.

Download or read book Ofcom written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-11-10 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last five years Ofcom has saved some £23 million, however, it is not possible to conclude on the extent to which Ofcom is delivering optimal value for the resources it uses. With its complex remit across the telecommunications sector, it needs a better articulation of the intended outcomes of its activities and how its work achieves those outcomes. Taking into account the expansion of its remit and inflation, Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications sector, costs around 27 per cent less in real terms (around £3 million per year more in cash terms) to run than its predecessors. Ofcom spends over £70 million managing the radio spectrum, which generates income for the Government of about £200 million per year. Analysis by the NAO suggests that there are many positive outcomes in the communications market: for example, prices have fallen and there is better choice and quality. However, there are still areas where improvements could be made. Three of the goods and services most complained about to the consumer helpline Consumer Direct are communications products (mobile phone service agreements, telephone landlines and internet service providers). Most of Ofcom's stakeholders feel that it conducts its consultations well, but 44 per cent of those the NAO surveyed felt that Ofcom does not go on to act in a timely manner. The frequency of appeals against Ofcom's regulatory decisions is an increasing challenge and they have cost Ofcom over £1 million per year since 2007-08.

Download or read book Ofcom written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-02-10 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee looked at Ofcom's management of its resources and also the outcomes for citizens and consumers. There is scope for Ofcom to do more to tackle persistent problems such as the volume of silent calls, relatively low levels of switching between telecoms providers, and limited competition in fixed-line telephony. Ofcom has successfully reduced its cost base, despite having taken on a number of additional duties. But, because it has classified some of the benefits of the merger as efficiency savings, it is questionable whether the scale of these is as much as would have been expected, once the merger-specific savings have been taken into account. Ofcom manages its expenditure within an overall cap, which is agreed each year with the Treasury. In most organisations the intended work plan will determine the budget, but in Ofcom it is effectively the other way round. This has the potential to incentivise Ofcom to make decisions based on keeping within the cap - rather than maximising value. This means that value for money - optimising the available resources to achieve intended outcomes - is not always the primary focus. Ofcom needs to do more to demonstrate its focus on value for money and to allow the taxpayers and companies that fund its activities to assess its performance. Ofcom sets out in its annual work plan the activities it plans to undertake, but it does not specify its intended outcomes, explain how its activities will achieve those outcomes, or set out how it will measure success. This makes it impossible to assess whether Ofcom is delivering value for money.

Download or read book Regulating Utilities and Promoting Competition written by Colin Robinson and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: . . . a treasure trove of valuable insight and commentary into the utility markets and how they are, and should be, regulated. European Competition Law Review Regulating Utilities and Promoting Competition continues the series of annual books, published in association with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the London Business School, which critically review the state of utility regulation and competition policy. With contributions by some of the leading figures in the field, this important new book presents incisive chapters on a number of prominent topics. These include, amongst others, the future of the railways, the international trade in gas, the economics and politics of wind power and the role of economics in merger reviews. A key feature of the book is the careful examination of fundamental issues, not only from the viewpoint of academic and other independent commentators, but also by the regulators and heads of competition authorities themselves. By addressing significant developments both in Britain and abroad, the authors draw important lessons about the policy changes needed as well as their subsequent implementation. This book will be of great value to practitioners, policymakers and academics alike who are concerned with regulation, deregulation and policies to promote competition.

Download or read book Reorganising central government written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-18 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between May 2005 and June 2009, there were over 90 reorganisations to central government. This report finds that these cannot demonstrate value for money, given that most had vague objectives and that costs and benefits were not tracked. The average annual cost of reorganisations is almost £200 million, around 85 per cent of which is for the reorganisation of arms length bodies. Since 1980, 25 central government departments have been created, including 13 which no longer exist. By comparison, in the United States only two new departments have been created over the same period. Central government bodies are weak at identifying and securing the benefits they hope to gain from reorganisation. There is no standard approach for preparing and assessing business cases setting out intended benefits against expected costs. More than half of reorganisations do not compare expected costs and benefits of alternative options, so there can be no certainty that the chosen approaches are the most cost effective. Furthermore, no departments set metrics to track the benefits that should justify reorganisation - making it impossible for them to demonstrate that the eventual benefits outweigh costs. There is no requirement for bodies to disclose the costs of reorganisations after they happen - meaning the true cost of reorganisation is often hidden. The decisions to reorganise departments and arms length bodies are often taken at short notice and with inadequate understanding of what could go wrong.

Download or read book From the "Democratic Deficit" to a "Democratic Surplus" written by Athanasios Psygkas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the conventional narrative that the European Union suffers from a "democratic deficit," Athanasios Psygkas argues that EU mandates have enhanced the democratic accountability of national regulatory agencies. This is because EU law has created entry points for stakeholder participation in the operation of national regulators; these avenues for public participation were formerly either not open or not institutionalized to this degree. By focusing on how the EU formally adopted procedural mandates to advance the substantive goal of creating an internal market in electronic communications, Psygkas demonstrates that EU requirements have had significant implications for the nature of administrative governance in the member states. Drawing on theoretical arguments in favor of decentralization traditionally applied to substantive policy-making, this book provides insight into regulatory processes to show how the decentralized EU structure may transform national regulatory authorities into individual loci of experimentation that might in turn develop innovative results. It thus contributes to debates about federalism, governance and public policy, as well as about deliberative and participatory democracy in the United States and Europe. This book informs current understandings of regulatory agency operations and institutional design by drawing on an original dataset of public consultations and interviews with agency officials, industry and consumer group representatives in Paris, Athens, Brussels, and London. The on-the-ground original research provides a strong foundation for the directions the case law could take and small- and larger-scale institutional reforms that balance the goals of democracy, accountability, and efficiency.

Download or read book Public service content written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2006, the Government published its White Paper on the BBC ("A public service for all: the BBC in the digital age", Cm. 6763 (ISBN 9780101676328)) which set out the framework for the BBC's role as a public service broadcaster over the next ten years. Given the concerns that have been raised over the future sustainability of the current public service broadcasting system, the Committee's report examines a range of issues including: the prospects for maintaining plurality in public service broadcasting in the digital age; the practicality of continuing to impose public service obligations on commercial broadcasters; the viability of existing funding models for ITV, Channel 4 and Five; and the case for public funding of broadcasters in addition to the BBC. Amongst its findings, although the Committee notes its overall confidence in the viability of most types of public service content, it recognises that some content is already coming under pressure and that this is likely to increase over time. The report argues that the BBC should not be left as the only supplier of public service content in any area of programming, as the maintenance of plurality is an important public policy objective. Public funding, using licence fee income or general taxation, should be made available to all broadcasters on a contestable basis, to bring the benefits of competition to the provision of public service content that the market might not otherwise provide, such as UK­produced children's programming or regional programming.