Ofcom

The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers across the television, radio, telecoms and postal sectors. It has a statutory duty to represent the interests of citizens and consumers by promoting competition and protecting the public from harmful or offensive material. Some of the main areas Ofcom regulates are TV and radio standards, broadband and phones, video-sharing platforms online, the wireless spectrum and postal services. The regulator was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002 and received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003. On , the Queen's Speech to the UK Parliament announced the creation of Ofcom. The new body, which was to replace several existing authorities, was conceived as a "super-regulator" to oversee media channels that were rapidly converging through digital transmission. On , Ofcom launched, formally inheriting the duties that had previously been the responsibility of five different regulators: the Broadcasting Standards Commission the Independent Television Commission the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) the Radio Authority the Radiocommunications Agency In July 2009, Conservative Party opposition leader David Cameron referenced Ofcom in a speech against the proliferation of quangos: "With a Conservative government, Ofcom as we know it will cease to exist... Its remit will be restricted to its narrow technical and enforcement roles. It will no longer play a role in making policy. And the policy-making functions it has today will be transferred back fully to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport." Under Cameron's subsequent premiership of the 2010 UK coalition government, the Public Bodies Act 2011 did remove or modify several of Ofcom's duties, although it did not substantially reduce Ofcom's remit.