Present: Jeremy Mitchell (Chairman)
Chris Griffith
Mark Hagger
Kenneth Murray
Alastair Robertson
Barry Stevens MBE

Peter Wilson (Consultant)
Paul Rogers (Head of ACT Secretariat, Oftel)
Jan Edwards (SACOT Assistant Secretary)
Ray Thornton (Oftel)

1. OPENING REMARKS AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

1.1 The Chairman opened the 83rd meeting by expressing the sympathy of the committee for George Halford, the SACOT Secretary, who was absent from the meeting on special leave. He welcomed Paul Rogers who attended the meeting in the Secretary's place.

1.2 Wendy Reynolds was absent from the meeting, but no apologies had been received.

2. MINUTES OF THE 82ND MEETING HELD ON 14 JANUARY 2003

2.1 In relation to the minutes of the 81st meeting, following correspondence with Oftel, it was proposed and agreed that lines 16 - 18 of item 6.1 should be amended to read "Of the top 10 companies subject to complaint there was particular discussion about 02's online service and BT Openworld's introduction of reduced access terms." Otherwise the minutes of the 82nd meeting were approved.

ACTION (Secretary)

3. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE 82ND MEETING

· 3.1 Project Allocation

3.1 All members confirmed that the arrangements for Oftel Project Managers to contact them were operating satisfactorily.

4. REPORTS FROM CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS

i. Chairman's Report

· TAP meeting 21 January
4.1 The Chairman confirmed that members had received a copy of the minutes of the TAP meeting. The minutes referred to the publication of the Competition Commission's inquiry on charges for mobile phones; the Chairman advised the members that some telcos were seeking a judicial review over the Commission's findings whilst others were implementing the recommendations.

4.2 The Chairman advised the members that it had been agreed at the TAP meeting that there would not be an ACT members' conference. A suggestion had been made that Oftel should be asked to host a conference later on in the year to thank the members for their efforts and to brief them on the transition to OFCOM.

4.3 The TAP minutes referred to MOUs being negotiated by the TOS with CRS and ICTSIS; this would be discussed later on in the meeting (see 4.5 below).

· Communications Bill
4.4 This would be discussed under agenda item 7.

· TOS Council
4.5 The Chairman reported on the 4 February and 4 March meetings of the TOS Council. Otelo had been open for business since 1 January 2003 and was now beginning to receive enquiries and complaints. 'Thus' was the first Scottish operator to be admitted to the scheme. Consideration was being given to the question of ISP membership. It was clear from the complexity of the complaints and enquiries received that the scope of otelo should not be restricted to telcos. MOUs were being drawn up with Oftel/CRS and ICSTIS.

· BT Meeting 18 February
4.6 A minute of the meeting together with details of exchanges with ADSL in place and exchanges with trigger levels had been previously circulated. The Chairman reported that an interesting discussion on broadband had taken place. Take-up in areas covered by exchanges was around 3% but no information was available for exchanges where trigger levels had not been set. It was agreed that this would be followed up with BT. There was a question mark on the Pathfinder project and BT was in discussion with the Scottish Executive to determine what, under EU rules, could be delivered. Contracts had yet to be negotiated.

ACTION (Secretariat)

4.7 The Chairman reported that, during the discussion on repair service, it became apparent to him that BT had not until recently taken sufficient account of factors such as the weather. This seemed an unusual omission - given the geographical location of Scotland.

4.8 Complaints had been received by SACOT that BT Anytime customers were being cut off after being on line for 2 hours. BT Anytime customers should have up to 150 hours access per month, after which they are charged on a per minute basis. BT had disclosed that many ISPs offering a broadband service will be restricting the hours of access in future but that should have no impact for Anytime customers. It was agreed that further clarification should be sought.

ACTION (Secretariat)

· WACT/NIACT/SACOT meeting Belfast 26 February
4.9 A report of the meeting of the Chairmen of the WACT, NIACT and SACOT committees on 26 February had been circulated. The wording of an amendment to establish statutory national committees of the Ofcom Consumer Panel was agreed and the SACOT Chairman would contact the Consumers' Association for guidance on Parliamentary drafting.

· Consumer Rights Conference
4.10 George Halford attended in the place of the Chairman.

ii Members' Reports

· Financial Services Authority - e-Commerce Committee
4.11 Alastair Robertson reported that the FSA e-commerce committee was concerned about the risks and identification of problems for personal information about consumers and businesses. The problem was to find an absolutely secure way of accessing information within technical constraints; currently it represented a burden on businesses and consumers.

· Oftel Committee for Business
4.12 Alastair Robertson reported that CfB was liaising with the Forum for Private Businesses (FPB) and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) on the Communications Bill. FPB was currently taking the lead and CfB will be meeting the group at the end of the month.

· Directory Enquiries Consumer Group
4.13 Alastair Robertson reported that new DQ services were running in parallel with the existing 192. There were a number of players who had yet to enter the DQ market and were probably holding off until August 2003. There was concern over the potential for consumers to incur large bills due to the availability of add on services - particularly those involving accessing different mobile networks. The accuracy of data held by DQ providers remained a concern - particularly for small businesses. Alastair Robertson and Peter Sayers (Chairman of CfB) had been speakers at a DQ conference last month.

4.14 Traditional DQ enquiries were going down and call completion was on the increase. A condoc had been issued on what messages will go out on 192/153 after August 2003 with a 21 April deadline for responses. A consultation workshop was to take place on 11 April and it would be useful for SACOT members to feed their views through to Alastair Robertson before then, as well as responding to the condoc in the normal fashion. It was agreed that the Secretariat would arrange for distribution of the condoc to SACOT members as quickly as possible.

ACTION (Secretary/Members)

· Consumer Forum on Communications
4.15 George Halford had attended the meeting in Peter Wilson's place.

· BT Dinner, 14 January
4.16 Barry Stevens attended the event, along with representatives from the media and charities. The dinner concluded with an hour-long question and answer session. Barry Stevens raised his concerns over the accuracy of BT's statistics on the take-up of broadband. The press expressed some interest in SACOT's activities and Barry Stevens was able to forward their enquiries to Jeremy Mitchell, which led to an article in the Herald on Sunday and correspondence with the Chairman of OFCOM.

· CCE/CfB Broadband Seminar
4.17 George Halford, Alastair Robertson and Kenneth Murray attended this event. The seminar had been well attended and there was a lively discussion over the issues raised (particularly between two of the speakers).

· NIACT Conference, 12 March
4.18 Alastair Robertson and Kenneth Murray represented SACOT at the event. They described the conference as a survey of NIACT's achievements and a restatement of the case for specific consumer representation for Northern Ireland.

5. SECRETARY'S REPORT

5.1 It was agreed that the report would be held over until the next meeting.

6. COMPLAINTS STATISTICS

6.1 A thirteen-month complaints report (February 2002 to February 2003) had been prepared by CRS and previously circulated to the members. A number of issues to be pursued with CRS were identified: why complaints about ISPs had reduced by two-thirds; more information about the definition of the complaint category "privacy" and why there was a dramatic increase in complaints about broadband.

ACTION (Secretary)

7. COMMUNICATIONS BILL

7.1 A note of the meeting under PUAF auspices on 21 January had been circulated as well as minutes of the SACOT/WACT/NIACT Chairmen's meeting on 26 February to discuss amendments to the Communications Bill to require statutory country committees of the OFCOM Consumer Panel. The Chairman explained that the latter meeting had been necessary, as the Chairman of CCE did not support the proposal for country committees.

7.2 The latest position on amendments to the Communications Bill was discussed. An amendment had been passed on Clause 3(1) that placed OFCOM under an obligation to further the interests of the community as a whole in relation to communications matters as well as that of consumers in the various markets. This appeared to be very good news indeed. On the other hand the government remained opposed to the establishment of statutory country committees, either of OFCOM itself or of the OFCOM Consumer Panel, or to placing OFCOM under an obligation to consult with the devolved assemblies.

7.3 The Chairman was awaiting drafting advice from the Consumers' Association on the wording of a suggested amendment to the Bill on country committees. Once the amendment had been cleared the SACOT/WACT/NIACT Chairmen would pursue the matter through the House of Lords. As to the issue of appointment of Consumer Panel members, the Chairman was pleased to report that, following discussions, the Consumers' Association now supported SACOT's position that appointment should be made by the Secretary of State.

ACTION (Chairman)

8. OFCOM

8.1 The Chairman's letter of 13 February to Lord Currie setting out the case for a Scottish voice within OFCOM had previously been circulated. No substantive response had been received as yet.

Consultation document responses for formal endorsement

9. Oftel Consultation Document (S127/2002): "Draft Oftel Management Plan 2003-04.

DTI Consultation Document (S134/2002): "Enterprise Act 2002 - Designating Bodies to make Super-Complaints"

DTI Consultation Document (S135/2002): "Specifying Bodies to bring Claims for Damages on behalf of Consumers"

DTI Consultation Document (S136/2002): "Enterprise Act 2002: Secondary Legislation to be made under Part 8 (Enforcement of certain Consumer Legislation)"

9.1 The committee approved the responses to the condocs.

SACOT Annual Report and Forward Plans

9.2 The committee approved its Annual Report and Forward Plans, which would be submitted formally to the Director General and also sent to the Secretary of State and the First Minister.

Condocs for discussion

10. Oftel Consultation Document (S029/2003): "Draft Guidelines for Customer Line Identification Display Services and other Related Services over Electronic Communications Networks"

10.1 The Chairman expressed his concern over how the guidelines will be
monitored and enforced and what status the guidelines would have. He would be
raising these points in the response to the condoc.

ACTION (Chairman)

11. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

11.1 Alastair Robertson reported on a draft decree from Spain that stipulated a minimum level of wiring for buildings for digital services. If the UK adopted a similar approach it would be a good way of progressing the take up of broadband and the approach should be recommended to the DG. It was agreed that the item would be placed on the agenda of the next meeting.

ACTION (Secretary)

11.2 Mark Hagger had attended a cross party meeting but no MSPs were present. The Chairman noted the possibility of joining the group but thought it advisable to put the matter on hold until after the elections.

12. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

12.1 Tuesday 29 April. It was also confirmed that the meeting after that would take place on 26 June.

ACTION (Chairman/Secretary)

13. The meeting was followed by a presentation by Ray Thornton (Oftel) on options for numbering in Scotland.