The Communications Act 2003 became law in July and gives regulatory powers to the new Office of Communications (Ofcom). The Act requires Ofcom to establish a Consumer Paneland set up advisory committees to represent different parts of the UK and advise on issues affecting people who are older or disabled. This means that the current advisory committees on telecommunications (ACTs) are in their final phase - like Oftel, they are expected to be wound up by the end of the year when Ofcom takes up its full regulatory powers.

Since the publication of the White Paper A New Future for Communications in December 2000, the new converged communications regulator has remained high on the ACTs' agenda. They have argued for effective arrangements to represent the interests of consumers under the new regulatory regime and in the committees' view, the Communications Act includes a number of improvements on the draft Communications Bill that was published in spring 2002. This is due to the efforts of a wide range of people and organisations, including MPs and Peers.

But the ACTs also played an active part in this process. They responded to the draft Bill and the version that was introduced in the House of Commons in November 2002. The Welsh and Scottish committees hosted receptions at Westminster to argue the case for representation in their two countries, and the Northern Ireland committee hosted a similar event at Stormont. The ACTs worked closely with other consumer bodies, with groups representing people who are older or disabled and with small business organisations.

One of the ACTs common concerns was that Ofcom should have a clear consumer focus. The ACTs are pleased that the principal duty of Ofcom will be to further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters and the interests of consumers in relevant markets - Clauses 16 to 21 of the Act deal with the Consumer Panel and Ofcom's advisory committees.

DIEL - the Advisory Committee on Telecommunications for Disabled and Elderly People - argued that the Consumer Panel should have a sub-committee to advise on issues affecting people who are older or disabled. Final debates in Parliament resulted in Clause 21 being inserted in the Act which will establish a committee to advise Ofcom directly on similar issues.

Advising Oftel

Whilst giving their attention to the new legislation, the ACTs have continued to advise Oftel on a range of issues in response to the market reviews required under the EU communications directives. ACT responses can be found on the ACTs' website at www.acts.org.uk.

TAP report

The Chairmen of the six ACTs meet regularly in a forum - the Telecoms Advisory Panel - to co-ordinate their work, and to raise matters with the Director General. Their annual report has recently been published and copies are available from the ACT Secretariat (tel: 020 7634 5301 / text: 0845 600 1318 / fax: 020 7634 8924 / e-mail: actsec@acts.org.uk).