Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Older & Disabled > Notes of Meetings > Fifth Meeting

07|10|05

Minutes of the fifth meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People, 13 April 2005

Held at Ofcom, Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA

Present

Mike Whitlam (Chairman)
Lydia Thomas (Deputy Chair)
Simon Cramp
Gareth Davies
Caroline Ellis
Sally Greengross
Jonathan Kaye
Ross Trotter

In attendance (*for parts of the meeting)

*Andy Bailey, Head of Publications & Events, Ofcom
*Peter Bourton, Senior Policy Executive, Ofcom
*Colette Bowe, Chairman Consumer Panel
Bradley Brady, Public & Political Relations Manager, Ofcom
*Eileen Cumming, Design & Development Manager, Ofcom
*Peter Davies, Head of Market Intelligence, Ofcom
*Khalid Hayat, Business Strategy Development Manager, Ofcom
*Mark Newman, Senior Developer, Ofcom
*Matt Peacock, Communications Director, Ofcom
*Lucy Rhodes, Policy Executive, Ofcom
Paul Rogers, Secretariat, Ofcom
*Tony Stoller, External Relations Director

Support

Julie Ross, P.A. to Simon Cramp
Cheryl Slater, speech to text reporter

1. Apologies for Absence

1.1 Apologies were received from Janet Askham, Fred Heddell, Kevin Carey and Bob Twitchin. The Chairman noted that Mr Twitchin was absent because it was his silver wedding anniversary and the members passed on their congratulations.

1.2 The Chairman advised the members that Ofcom had agreed a 2.8 per cent increase in the rate of allowance payable to Advisory Committee members and that this would be backdated to 1 April 2005. .

2. Minutes

2.1 The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed by the Chairman

3. Matters arising

3.1 Broadcasters’ Equal Opportunities Toolkit. It was agreed that Bradley Brady would establish what arrangements applied for the collection of recruitment data in the broadcasting industry pre-Ofcom.

AP1 Bradley Brady to establish recruitment information collection arrangements pre Ofcom.

3.2 Gambling Bill update. The Gambling Bill had now become law. Bradley Brady advised members that he would circulate an information note on the provisions of the Act.

AP2 Bradley Brady to circulate note on the Gambling Act.

3.3 Digital Switchover. A query was raised as to the extent to which members of the Committee could advise SwitchCo. Bradley Brady advised members that Ofcom would need to give its consent before any liaison could take place. Colette Bowe noted that the Consumer Panel would be meeting with SwitchCo on 28 April to discuss, amongst other matters, the implications digital switchover for older people and extended an invitation to Bradley Brady to attend that meeting. A further meeting with SwitchCo was planned to discuss the implications of digital switchover for disabled people.

AP3 Bradley Brady to attend Consumer Panel/SwitchCo meeting on 28 April

3.4 Fire Evacuation Plans. The Chairman advised members that Ofcom’s Facilities team was still reviewing the evacuation plans for ACOD members; further details would follow.

3.5 Mission Statement. This statement had now been sent to the Webmaster and would appear on the Ofcom Website in due course.

4. Consumer Panel research

4.1 Colette Bowe outlined the Consumer Panel’s quantitative research findings involving 2500 respondents across the United Kingdom in Autumn 2004. The research would help the Consumer Panel in deciding its priorities for this financial year and would be carried out on an annual basis. Amongst the key findings were:

There was a general awareness of broadband and digital TV but that awareness declined with age and whether or not the consumer was in work;
The most important source of information for consumers on communication developments was family and friends;
There was an information overload – there was too much information available to consumers and it was hampering them from making sound decisions. Ofcom needed to assess the situation to ensure that the market was working correctly;
People on low incomes paid the highest proportion of their incomes on their communications costs (telephony/television etc.).

4.2 The Consumer Panel wanted to develop a ‘wish list’ with ACOD on matters of common interest for disabled people to help inform the Panel’s discussions with industry. It was agreed that the Chairman and Colette Bowe would discuss the ‘wish list’ off line.

AP4 Mike Whitlam to meet with Colette Bowe

5. Radio Review

5.1 Peter Davies, Head of Market Intelligence gave a presentation on Ofcom’s consultation document Radio in the UK: Preparing for the Future. There were two principal purposes to the consultation: to produce guidance on requirements for local content and local production for commercial radio stations and to respond to the Secretary of State’s request to report on the development of digital radio.

5.2. On the requirements for local content and production Ofcom proposed to:

allow a modest relaxation of studio location rules;
remove restrictions on automation in order to reduce input regulation;
clarify the rules on networking of content to ensure the provision of local material and locally-made programming;
remove the restrictions on stations using the same news service whilst maintaining a high quality local news service.

5.3. In respect of the development of digital radio, Ofcom did not believe there was any similarity with television and believed the argument for switching off the analogue signals was not proven, due to the low take up of digital radio (Ofcom would be encouraging industry to promote digital radio) and that there was plenty of spectrum available for national broadcasting.

5.4 A member commented that he would like to see a more diverse workforce in the radio industry. They thought that digital radio presented massive opportunities for disabled people and that more specialist services should be made available to meet their needs. There was currently only one hour of disability news per week broadcast and more would be welcomed by the disabled community. Another member added that community radio was often the training ground for people coming into the communications industry and that accordingly the potential for new stations was to be encouraged.

5.5 A member said that digital radio offered a better service to people with hearing difficulties as it had cleaner/clearer sound. They thought that there could be scope to increase digital text broadcasting in the future so that profoundly deaf people could access radio services through their television.

5.6 In response to the members Peter Davies explained that Ofcom , whilst noting the comments made, was unable to actually require more programming for disabled people as it did not have the requisite powers. He further noted that the consultation on Phase 1 of the Radio Review had closed on 7 March (but members would have until 19 April to submit their views to Mr. Davies) and it was planned that a final report would be issued in the Spring/Summer of 2005.

AP5 Members to submit their views on the Radio Review to Peter Davies by 19 April

6. Ofcom Diversity Strategy

6.1 Tony Stoller attended the meeting to update members on Ofcom’s diversity strategy and key workstreams. Diversity was at the heart of Ofcom and the organisation sought to overcome all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination on the grounds of a person’s race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and age in all aspects of its work.

6.2 The Ofcom Diversity Statement and the draft Race Equalify Scheme were circulated in advance of the meeting and both documents were welcomed by the members. A member pointed out that there were attitudes to be overcome with respect to disability which might make people reluctant to disclose a disability; the consequence would be that monitoring, to ensure compliance with the strategy, might be potentially difficult.

6.3 Another member asked what action Ofcom would be taking to ensure that there was no age discrimination. Mr Stoller said that Ofcom did not require applicants to state their age when applying for a vacancy and added that Ofcom was seeking to address age issues in respect of its pension schemes. He also advised members that Ofcom was considering recruiting additional members to the Committee to ensure that it had a sufficiently diverse membership. It was agreed that comments on the diversity statement and the draft Race Equality Scheme should be sent to Bradley Brady.

AP6 Members to send their comments on the draft Race Equality Scheme and the Ofcom Diversity Statement to Bradley Brady.

6.4 The members were invited to nominate a member who would serve as ‘Diversity Champion’ for the Committee and would join the Ofcom Diversity Champions Group. Lydia Thomas was nominated and appointed.

7. Accessible Television

7.1 Peter Bourton attended the meeting to update the members on television access services and electronic programme guides (EPGs).

7.2 Television access services. The subtitling, signing and audio description targets for around 50 channels came into force at the beginning of 2005, bringing the number of channels required to provide television access services to 70. The first quarterly report from broadcasters on access to these services (covering January to March) is due to be received by Ofcom by 25 April and will be published in due course. The members thought that repeat broadcasts should be excluded when calculating whether broadcasters had met their quota, but Peter Bourton said this was not possible given the way the legislation was written.

7.3 Publicity for (and therefore knowledge of) access services remained patchy. Following on from a seminar hosted by Ofcom on access services, there was some work being done by broadcasters and NGOs to establish a ‘one stop shop’ for disabled viewers to obtain information on access services for all channels. Later in 2005 Ofcom will start a review of the Code on Television Access Services and the technical standards for subtitling, signing and audio description; advice from the Committee on issues to be addressed in the review would be welcomed. Discussions had taken place with the Telecommunications Action Group (TAG) and with the Digital Television Group on technical problems sometimes encountered with subtitling on digital terrestrial channels; however there was as yet insufficient information available from the complaints made to identify the likely cause of the problem – despite the wider range of services available relatively few complaints about subtitling had been received since (16 compared with three for last year). Some of the problems appeared to stem from unsuitable set top boxes. A member said that TAG was not convinced that this was the only reason. Peter Bourton said that Ofcom needed more information from complainants in order to determine the probable cause of their problems. There was now an on-line complaint form specifically geared to complaints about access services and he would be making changes to the form following discussions with TAG (in bold at the request of the Chairman).

AP7 Peter Bourton to implement changes to the complaints form.

7.4 Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs). Ofcom published a statement on abbreviations for subtitling, signing and audio description to be used on EPGs on 17 March. All broadcasters would be asked to use ‘S’ for subtitling, ‘AD’ for audio description, and ‘SL’ for sign language with effect from 1st May.

7.5 A member wanted to know whether Ofcom could make EPGs more accessible for disabled people. Mr Bourton explained that any requirements Ofcom set for EPGs must be seen as reasonable. Another member welcomed the proposal for different standards for subtitling and asked what progress had been made towards the development of on-line programming. Mr Bourton explained that Ofcom had no legal powers to drive the development of ‘on demand’ access services.

8. USO Working Sub Group Report Back

8.1 Ross Trotter reported that the USO sub group had met on 16 February and developed a response to the consultation which had been submitted to Ofcom. He thanked all the members who participated as members of the sub group.

9. Public Service Broadcasting Review Phase 3 Report Back

9.1 Khalid Hayat from the PSB Review policy team attended the meeting to report to the members on how the Committee’s submission to the PSB Review was reflected in the final statement. The key issues from the final phase of the review included:

a new PSB framework which would be characterized by competition for quality;
PSB in the Nations and Regions (to keep regional news at the core of PSB);
the future of Channel 4;
how the public service publisher (PSP) might work;
the clarity and separation of different roles and responsibilities for regulation and governance of the BBC.

9.2 Mr Hayat said that the review had taken into account the needs of disabled people but also needed to adopt a strategic over view and reflect the UK population as a whole and the groups within it.

9.3 The members were disappointed with the final statement, feeling that there was nothing in it to reflect the Committee’s submission and made the following observations:

that there was very little change from Phase 2;
that sign language should have the same status as Welsh and other indigenous languages otherwise broadcasters will ignore it;
the report largely ignored older and disabled people as citizens and viewers;
that broadcasters should be obliged to take into account the requirements of disabled people from the outset (eg such as programmes for deaf people by deaf people); and
that the definition of PSB no longer promoted an inclusive society.

9.4 Mr Hayat said that he would pass the Committee’s views back to the PSB Review policy team. He indicated that Ofcom had been asked in the Green Paper on the Charter Review to do more work on the public service publisher (PSP) and that work would include consideration of access issues. Whilst the Chairman recognised that the Green Paper presented a further opportunity for the Committee’s concerns to be addressed, he would write to David Currie to express his disappointment about the outcome of the review for older and disabled people.

AP8 Bradley Brady/Paul Rogers to prepare the first draft a letter for Mike Whitlam to send to David Currie

10. New Voice Services (NVS)

10.1 Lucy Rhodes from the Ofcom Consumer Policy Team attended the meeting to update the members on how the New Voice Services industry (also known as Voice over Broadband or Voice over IP) was addressing the concerns of older and disabled consumers. Following a consultation which closed in November 2004 Ofcom had formed the following initial policy views:

that regulation should allow the widest possible range of services to be offered, as long as consumers are informed;
to adopt an initial interim policy to allow providers to offer 999 access without having to meet all the obligations associated with traditional telephone services;
that less reliable access to 999 was preferable to no access at all.

10.2 Ofcom regarded access to 999 as a very important consumer protection measure and was working with the industry NVS working group to develop an industry wide code of practice. The Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) had already issued a code of practice but Ofcom did not at this stage recognise this organisation as a co-regulatory body.

10.3 A member was concerned about the scope for people buying inappropriate equipment. Lucy Rhodes explained that the information guidelines would cover both point of sale and point of use. The Committee commended the NVS Industry Working Group for their recognition of issues of importance to disabled people and their willingness to engage.

11. Ofcom Website

11.1 Matt Peacock, Ofcom’s Communications Director, and other members of his team attended the meeting to brief the members on the progress made to improve the accessibility of Ofcom’s website. The members were appreciative of the efforts being taken to improve the website and requested that Mr Peacock keep them informed of developments.

12. Future Planning

12.1 The members discussed their priorities for the rest of 2005 and how to best use the resources available to the Committee. The members agreed the need to set up a DSO sub group (interested members to contact Bradley Brady) and to investigate whether the Committee could respond to the BBC Charter Review. It was also agreed that the Chair, Vice Chair and Ofcom support staff would review the Ofcom Annual Plan and prepare a workplan for the rest of the year.

AP9 Members to contact Bradley Brady re DSO sub group
AP10 The Chair, Vice Chair and Ofcom support staff to prepare a draft work plan for the rest of 2005.

13. Any other business

13.1 It was agreed that a small group of Committee members would attend the meetings of the National Advisory Committees over the course of the next eighteen months. The Chairman had been invited to attend a meeting of the Content Board on 19 July and could be accompanied by two other members; the Chairman would also be attending a meeting of the Ofcom Board in June

AP11 Members to advise Bradley Brady of which National Advisory Committee they are interested in attending.
AP12 Members interested in coming to the Content Board meeting to advise Bradley Brady

13.2 The meeting closed at 5.00pm. The next meeting would take place on 13 July and would be preceded on 12 July by diversity training, followed by an evening meal. Representatives from NGOs working with older and disabled people would be invited to attend a reception to meet members following the 13 July meeting.

M.R.Whitlam
Chair of ACOD