These guidelines have now been updated and are available by clicking
here. Please
refer to the updated version.
Consumer
codes of practice
Background
In the Communications
White Paper, the Government called for the communications industry to
develop effective codes of practices for the benefit of consumers. Additionally,
the Communications Bill provides for codes of practice to be established
by all communications providers.
Guidelines
and criteria
In response, communications
providers, consumer groups and Oftel have established a set of guidelines
for the production of codes of practice. These guidelines provide both
a template on which communications providers can base their codes of
practice and an explanation of how Oftel will assess and approve codes
of practice.
Click here for the
guidelines and criteria for codes of practice.
Who
has to produce codes of practice?
Under the new general
conditions, all public communications providers will have to produce
codes of practice for residential consumers and small businesses (see
guidelines for definition of small businesses). Those communications
providers without either type of customer will not have to produce codes
of practice.
Further information
on regulatory obligations under the new regime will be published shortly
on this website.
Submitting
codes of practice for approval
The new regulatory
regime comes will come into force on 25 July 2003. Therefore, it is
likely to that Oftel will have to approve many codes at the same time.
Oftel would therefore recommend that draft codes of practice and covering
letters are sent to Oftel by 31 May 2003 to allow time for consideration
and approval.
Where possible Oftel
will provide an initial assessment of codes of practice within one month
of receiving them.
The draft codes
of practice, covering letters and any queries should be directed to:
David Parsons
Oftel
50 Ludgate Hill
London
EC4M 7JJ
e-mail: david.parsons@oftel.gov.uk
telephone:
020 7634 8746
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