That is right, convener. I will keep it very brief, because I know that you do not have lots of time this morning.
Thank you for the invitation to discuss local commercial radio, which I appreciate is a topic that has ignited a significant amount of interest in the Scottish Parliament and more widely since our decision last year to amend the relevant guidelines. I wrote to the committee earlier this week, ahead of this appearance, to provide some additional context to the March briefing note that we gave you ahead of the Global Radio evidence session. If it is okay, I will take this opportunity to highlight a couple of points that I made in that letter.
First, I put on record my apologies for the fact that we do not appear to have notified the committee of last June’s consultation, which you wrote to me about. As you know, we work hard to ensure that a good range of Scottish Parliament committees are kept notified of all relevant Ofcom publications, of which there are several hundred each year. Frankly, it looks as though we have fallen short on this occasion, and I am very sorry about that. We are reflecting on what improvements can be made to our processes to avoid the possibility of that happening again.
Secondly, I emphasise that Ofcom’s work in this area, which followed a detailed UK Government consultation and response in 2017, was evidence based and was carried out in accordance with our statutory remit and duties. I have seen it questioned publicly whether the issue falls within our remit, but we do not think that such suggestions are correct. Section 314 of the Communications Act 2003 requires Ofcom to
“carry out ... functions in relation to local”
commercial radio
“services in a manner that”
we, in Ofcom,
“consider is best calculated to secure ... such services”.
As the committee will know, the most recent substantial revision of the localness guidelines was in 2010. Members will also be aware that the market has changed dramatically as a result of competition from music streaming services and other radio services such as internet radio, which are not regulated, and from services such as digital audio broadcasting and other digital broadcast platforms, which are regulated less than analogue services. We feel strongly that the flexibility that we have introduced responds to the pace of change in the radio sector and enables radio groups to put more resources into programme making and less into the bricks-and-mortar costs of maintaining separate local studios while simultaneously ensuring that listeners’ expectations of high-quality local news and other content continue to be met.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to attend this meeting. We look forward to discussing the issues further with you.