Note of the 1st Meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Scotland (ACS), 25 March 2004

Introduction

1. The Chairman welcomed members to the first meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Scotland. Fiona Ballantyne (Consumer Panel), Neil Fraser (Gaelic Media Service), Khalid Hayat (Ofcom), Graham Howell (Ofcom), Matthew MacIver (Ofcom Content Board), Paul Rogers (Ofcom) and Alan Stewart were also present. The inaugural meeting covered the governance arrangements for the Committee, the members' views on communications industry issues in Scotland, current Ofcom consultations and arrangements for future meetings.

Governance arrangements

2. The arrangements under which the National Advisory Committees were chaired by the respective Ofcom Directors of Nations would be reviewed after one year. The Terms of Reference and the Code of Conduct 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. The agenda for each meeting would be published on the Ofcom website and a note of the meeting would follow upon approval of the minutes.

Members' views on communications industry issues in Scotland

3. The interests of members included the roll out of broadband (particularly in rural areas); the lack of effective competition in telecommunications, the regulation of the Internet, Scottish content, editorial control, digital switchover and the promotion of media literacy. The promotion of wholly Scottish media issues and the maintenance of independent production were also matters of interest.

Introduction of the work of the Content Board, the Consumer Panel and the Gaelic Media Service

4. Representatives from the Content Board, the Consumer Panel and the Gaelic Media Service would be regular attendees at Committee meetings. Representatives would feed the Committee's views back to their own bodies; a formal protocol would be issued in due course. The members then received presentations on the work of these three bodies.

Current Ofcom consultations

5. The Committee received a presentation on the Public Service Broadcast Review and the members were invited to submit their views to the PSB team.

6. It was noted that 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 should contain information on the origin of 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. It was agreed that the Committee would meet on the following dates in 2004: 2 June, 16 September and 1 November.

Any other business

10. The members thought it would be useful for Ofcom to provide them with a summary of press cuttings.