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Summary

1.1 The regulation of premium rate services ( PRS ) in the UK is carried out under a co-regulatory arrangement between the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and PhonepayPlus (formerly the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, ICSTIS). Under the Communications Act 2003 (the Act), Ofcom has the power to set conditions to ensure that PRS providers comply with PRS regulation. Ofcom may also approve a code of practice for the regulation of PRS subject to certain criteria being met, which is then administered by an “enforcement authority”. PhonepayPlus has regulated PRS in the UK since their inception in 1986. Ofcom approved the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice (11th Edition) for Premium Rate Services in November 2006 and this came into force in January 2007. This document now invites comments on whether Ofcom should approve under section 121 of the Act proposed amendments to the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice (11th Edition) to reflect revised governance arrangements for PhonepayPlus.

1.2 In March 2007, PhonepayPlus issued a consultation document[^(-1-)] recommending amendments to the 11 th Code of Practice to reflect proposed changes to PhonepayPlus’ governance arrangements. The proposals included:

• Creating a smaller Board focused strongly on setting strategic direction, policy-making and supervising the work of the Executive;
• Establishing a Code Compliance Panel (consisting of people with professional and other relevant skills and resources necessary to assure the quality and timelines of adjudicatory work) from which to draw people to sit on Tribunals[^(-2-)], thereby resulting in a lesser degree of continuing Board involvement in adjudicatory work;
• Ensuring that Tribunals sitting to make determinations on Code compliance issues are always chaired by a legally qualified Code Compliance Panel member.

1.3 PhonepayPlus received 10 responses to its consultation document[^(-3-)] and, in light of comments received, concluded that the amended Code should be formally submitted to Ofcom for approval in accordance with section 121(6) and 121(7) of the Communications Act 2003 (the ‘Act’) on 25 June 2007. The relevant sections of the Code are attached at Annex 4 to this document, with the proposed amendments in bold. The full Code can be found at:

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/publications/cop/

1.4 Ofcom is now inviting comments on whether it should approve the amendments to the Code. In order to approve the amendments to the Code, Ofcom would have to be satisfied that:

a) a code has been made by any person for regulating the provision and contents of PRS , and the facilities made available in the provision of such services (the test in section 121(1)(a) of the Act);

b) the Code contains provisions for regulating, to such extent as Ofcom think fit, the arrangements made by the providers of PRS for promoting and marketing those services (the test in section 121(1)(b) of the Act);

c) all of the requirements in section 121(2) are met; and

d) having regard inter alia to the provisions of the Code, it is appropriate for Ofcom to approve it (the test in section 121(1)(c), with Ofcom exercising its discretion in accordance with its duties under sections 3 and 4 of that Act).

1.5 Having given preliminary consideration to the amendments to the Code, Ofcom is minded to decide that it is satisfied that those criteria have been met and to proceed to approve the amended Code under section 121. Ofcom’s final decision will only be taken, however, once it has considered all responses to this consultation paper which are received during the consultation period.

Consultation

1.6 Ofcom is inviting written views and comments by 5pm on 16 January 2008 on its proposed approval of the amendments to the Code, which are set out in Annex 4 to this document.

1.7 Details of how to respond can be found in Annex 1.

Effective date

1.8 Ofcom is proposing that the amended Code should take effect four weeks from the date of publication of Ofcom’s final Notification of approval, which gives approval to the amended Code - should we decide to issue such a notification following due consideration of responses received to this consultation. This is to allow PhonepayPlus time to implement the new governance arrangements.

Footnotes:

1.- ICSTIS’ consultation document is available on the ICSTIS website at: http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_consult/gov_code.pdf

2.- ICSTIS Tribunals make determinations in respect of Code breaches and approve requests for prior permission to run specified services under the Code.

3.-A summary of the responses received by ICSTIS can be found at: http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_consult/GovCode_ICSTISresponse.pdf

The full document is available below

• Amendment to the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice (11th Edition) [pdf]
  Full Print Version

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