Statement: Review of the General Conditions of Entitlement

The documents on this page relate to the changes we have decided to make to the General Conditions of Entitlement – the regulatory rules that all communications providers must follow to operate in the UK.

The changes follow a comprehensive review of the General Conditions, the aim of which was to produce a revised set of up to date conditions which reflect Ofcom’s current priorities and concerns, and are simpler and clearer for industry to comply with. This should also make it easier for us to enforce the rules in the interests of citizens and consumers.

The decisions we have taken as a result of this review are set out in two separate statements:

• The September 2017 statement and consultation sets out the majority of changes we have decided to make to the General Conditions, as well as a consultation on (i) a further extension of our power to withdraw telephone numbers where they are used inconsistently with the Numbering Plan or otherwise misused; (ii) updating a 2003 direction which specifies which public bodies may request industry to make arrangements for the restoration of communications services in the event of disasters; and (iii) providing guidance about the procedures for terminating contracts.
• The March 2018 statement sets out our decisions on the matters we consulted on in September 2017.

On 26 April 2018, we published a further consultation on a proposal to amend general condition C6.6 to clarify that calls to the emergency services should always be connected. That consultation also sets out our proposals for additional changes to our guidance on Calling Line Identification facilities, following feedback from stakeholders, as well as a number of minor drafting changes that we think it would be useful to make to the new general conditions, in advance of them taking effect later this year. The consultation closes on 28 May 2018.

All of the revised conditions will come into force on 1 October 2018.

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Responses

Responder name	Type
August 2016 consultation: Advisory Committee for England (PDF, 25.8 KB)	Individual
August 2016 consultation: Advisory Committee for Scotland (PDF, 349.4 KB)	Individual
August 2016 consultation: BT (PDF, 222.2 KB)	Individual
August 2016 consultation: Chief Fire Officers Association (PDF, 360.2 KB)	Individual
August 2016 consultation: Communications Consumer Panel and ACOD (PDF, 191.2 KB)	Individual

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