Minutes of Advisory Committee for Scotland - Meeting held on 19 April 2006

Present:

Joyce Taylor – Chair, ACS
Selma Rahman – ACS
Julie Ramage – ACS
Thomas Prag – ACS
Andrew Muir – ACS
Martin Robertson – ACS
Philip Schlesinger – ACS
Fiona Ballantyne - Ofcom Consumer Panel

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Andrew Muir, Susan Neal and Jim Hunter (all ACS), Neil Fraser (Gaelic Media Service), Matthew MacIver (Ofcom Content Board) and Graham Howell (Ofcom). Fiona McLeod had notified Ofcom of her resignation from the ACS. It was agreed to invite Neil Fraser to provide an update at the next ACS meeting on the Gaelic broadcasting situation. There was also interest in having a Content Board update at the next ACS meeting – action by ACS Chair.

2. Minutes and Matters Arising

2.1 The minutes of the last meeting were approved subject to three amendments.

2.2 Under matters arising, the BBC’s Broadcasting Council for Scotland had sent a DVD on programming and disability to the ACS Chair. Copies were to be made for circulation to members (Bob Twitchin on the Consumer Panel and ACOD would be interested). By mid-Summer the Broadcasting Council’s research on “Scottishness” should be ready and it was agreed it would be useful for the ACS to discuss the findings. Action: Chair to write letter of thanks. With respect to item 5 the ACS were informed that Digital UK had appointed a Regional Manager for the Border area.

3. Director’s Report

3.1 Members were informed about the launch of the Audit of Nations and Regions reports, to be followed by policy discussions. It was possible someone in Scottish Enterprise dealing with the voluntary sector could be interested in this area. It had been suggested that a sub-group could be formed from the ACS. The most likely dates for these discussions were May 30 and 31.

3.2 In terms of ACS members’ terms of office, these were either three or four years and discussions would take place with those members whose terms were due to end.

3.3 It was agreed that the ACS should drive the agenda for discussion with the Ofcom board in July. Members were also updated on Scottish Executive representation in the digital switchover process and reference was made to the possibility of the Community Radio fund being used for local TV.

3.4 The ACS was updated on the situation regarding E-map services in Scotland.

4. Digital Dividend

4.1. The ACS was very interested in this project and there was discussion about the criteria for Ofcom intervening in the interests of social use if the market fails to deliver. Applying both economic and social criteria required different judgements and the project highlighted the need for Ofcom to be clearer with respect to definitions of citizenship. There could be a role for the ACS to press Ofcom in this area.

4.2 There was concern at the possible lack of leverage to insert public service requirements into licences once the spectrum was sold off, possibly to brokers. One possible use of spectrum was broadband in rural areas. The potential benefits in rural areas could differ considerably from urban areas and should not be regarded as merely requiring add-on solutions to those in more populated areas. The rural/urban divide was not necessarily nationally demarcated and it was noted that the Consumer Panel recognised the need for an integrated approach to rural issues. Research might be more productive if rural areas were aggregated together. There was interest in the research (not yet published) on next generation broadband commissioned by the Scottish Executive. Action: Ofcom Scotland to follow up. One issue is one of awareness: people not understanding the potential benefits of various forms of spectrum use. It was suggested that Ofcom might get useful input from suppliers.

4.3 The ACS was encouraged to make a formal response to the consultation. Ofcom would be particularly interested in comments on the geographical packaging of spectrum and the timing of its release. There was also the potential to engage with the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise over this. It was noted that these organisations had been advised of Ofcom’s work on the DDR and the website link on the Ofcom site about this area of activity.

5. Changes at Scottish and Grampian TV

5.1 ACS had requested an update following recent reports about restructuring at Scottish and Grampian. Representatives from the company discussed changes affecting headcount, accommodation, programming and production and stated that the introduction of a new single identity across both stations will present good opportunities to create a robust cross platform strategy for the licences going forward. Additional split news services are going ahead and will be introduced in 2007. ACS thanked SMG for the update.

6. Ofcom Consumer Policy

6.1 The ACS was briefed on Ofcom’s new Consumer Policy strategy. There followed a discussion about the differences between consumer issues and citizen issues which could be entirely different things and require different regulatory approaches. ACS highlighted the importance of this area and urged Ofcom to maintain efforts to draw issues and opinions from all sectors of the UK population.

7. Media Literacy Update

7.1 The ACS was updated on Ofcom research and meetings with stakeholders including the Scottish Adult Learning Partnership, Microsoft and the Scottish Executive. There was the possibility of establishing a Scottish Media Literacy Network and the prospect of a policy seminar taking place in the autumn. The ACS welcomed progress in this area and asked Ofcom to take account of the different parts of the Scottish Executive with a potential interest in this area and the direct relevance of media literacy to the education sector. Some representation from young people in the process was also desirable. The definition of medial literacy was discussed and there was a call for regulatory intervention to take account also of the potential downsides to technological change.

8. Ofcom Consumer Panel

8.1 Ofcom Consumer Panel Research Quantitative Research Findings

Fiona Ballantyne reported that some interesting findings had arisen in the areas of awareness and ownership. There was confusion around DAB radio and people in Scotland were less likely to keep themselves informed about changes in the communications market. With regard to ownership there was concern that disabled people were being excluded.

With regard to telephony, in comparison with the rest of the UK, there is lower than average landline take-up in Scotland and Scottish mobile users send more texts. People who make the most use of texts rather than calls tend to be those on low incomes. It was felt that it would be interesting to see to what extent publicly accessible facilities compensate for low income in terms of exclusion. Consumers were complaining more about cold calling.

There followed a discussion on the issues of engagement and voluntary exclusion particularly with regard to older people. FB stated that it was intended to use this research with suppliers. FB further stated that the Consumer Panel intended to hold an event around older people’s research.

FB advised that the report will be published in May which will allow ACS to look across areas of interest.

8.2 DTI Consultation

With regard to the DTI consultation on the amalgamation of consumer organisations, the Ofcom Consumer Panel felt that they operate on a different model. Through their link with Ofcom they are able to both work with them and influence policy. They also enjoy the benefits of being able to use Ofcom’s facilities. In summary, it was considered that the relationship with Ofcom is working well and the Panel have responded along these lines to the DTI consultation.

The Chair thanked Fiona Ballantyne for her report.

9. OCC Information

It was reported that 1,089 cases had been handled by the OCC, some of which were referred on to other bodies.

Some of the issues remain the same. Telecoms is still the category with the most complaints – slamming remains a problem.

There was Increasing concern about competitions on certain channels. Content and Standards are devoting considerable resources to looking at this area. The ACS was updated on recent programming issues in Scotland.

10. Retail Price Control

ACS requested more information on the agreement with BT. It was agreed to report back to the ACS.

11. AOB/Date of Next Meeting

There being no further business, ACS confirmed the date of the next meeting as: Monday, 3 July 2006.