Today I got this from OFCOM. I preferred the GPO. As you can tell, I am not a great fan.
“Ofcom has today published a consultation on its General Policy on Information Gathering.
As an evidence-based regulator, the ability to obtain information to inform our work is fundamental to our role.
The primary purpose of the policy is to make clear to stakeholders how we intend to exercise our powers under legislation where we are required to publish this policy.
We are proposing to update our existing policy - first published in 2005 - to reflect our current practices and powers in this area.
In summary, we plan to:
- expand the general policy to cover new information gathering powers and clarify its scope;
- update and clarify the text to reflect our experience of issuing statutory information notices;
- provide further detail on how we will handle statutory information notices (including in relation to the role of the Information Registry, the use of information provided voluntarily, the use of draft notices, and the disclosure of information and confidentiality); and
- clarify our approach to enforcement and what we expect from stakeholders when responding to a statutory information notice.
We are inviting feedback on our proposals which must be submitted by 30 September. Taking account of responses, we will aim to publish our final policy later this year.”
What makes me think this is now a QUANGO that has lost its way?
In the days of the GPO I was inspected several times. Since it became OFCOM, I have not been inspected ever.
