Note of the First Meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland

Introduction

1. The Chairman welcomed members to the first meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland. An apology had been received from Rosemary Kelly, the Content Board member for Northern Ireland. Khalid Hayat (Ofcom), Graham Howell (Ofcom), Kevin McLaughlin (Consumer Panel Member for Northern Ireland), Ronnie Neill (Ofcom), Paul Rogers (Ofcom) and Tony Stoller (Ofcom) were also present. The inaugural meeting covered the governance arrangements for the Committee, the members’ views on communications industry issues in Northern Ireland, current Ofcom consultations and arrangements for future meetings.

Governance arrangements

2. Whilst Committee meetings were confidential its operation would be as transparent as possible and Ofcom would place on the Ofcom website a copy of the agenda and a note of the meeting. A copy of the minutes would be circulated to the Ofcom Board and the Content Board and, if the Ofcom Board agreed, the Consumer Panel. The Terms of Reference had been circulated to members before the meeting. Representatives from the Content Board and Consumer Panel would be invited to attend each meeting but would not be bound by any decision made by the Committee.

Members’ views on communications industry issues in Northern Ireland

3. Amongst the views expressed by members was that Ofcom should use its powers to reduce inequality in Northern Ireland and educate consumers and that the Committee should build links with business users, with their Scottish counterpart and with ComReg. The rollout of broadband, promoting its benefits and an awareness of the benefits of competition in order to convert Northern Ireland into a knowledge based economy as well as the quality of programming were also matters of interest. The promotion of local high quality programming and addressing the lack of effective competition in telecommunications were also identified by members as matters of interest.

The work of the Content Board and the Consumer Panel

4. The members were given a presentation on the work of the Content Board and Consumer Panel.

Current consultations

5. The Committee received a presentation on the Public Service Broadcast Review.

6. It was noted that, as a general rule, Ofcom did not expect the Committee to respond to every consultation document; instead Ofcom would bring to the attention of members those matters on which it sought their views.

Summary of complaints

7. A complaint report for the period 29 December 2003 to 11 March 2004 had been circulated to the members. A complaint report would be a standing item on the Committee’s agenda. The members requested that future reports contain information on the length of time Ofcom took to resolve complaints.

Recruiting further members

8. The members were advised that Ofcom would, in due course, be advertising for additional members for each Committee.

Arrangements for further meetings

9. Most Committee meetings would take place in the Ofcom office in Belfast. The meetings for the rest of 2004 would take place on: 3 June, 27 September and 9 December.

Any other business

10. There was none.