Examination of Witnesses (Questions 678-679)
TUESDAY 1 APRIL 2003
LORD DUBS
OF BATTERSEA,
MR PAUL
BOLT, MS
JUDITH BARNES
AND MR
STRACHAN HEPPELL,
CB
Chairman: Lord Dubs, could I welcome
you and your colleagues here. I need to make the point that because
of these new Parliamentary sitting hours, which several of my
colleagues voted for, and will again—which just shows there
is no limit to human folly—it is perfectly possible within
the next few minutes there will be divisions, in which case I
regret the discourtesy to you. Thank you very much for coming
to see us
Derek Wyatt
678. Good afternoon, can I ask what sort of
conversations you have had internally with respect to how you
regulate or how you deal with complaints of broadcasting on the
Internet?
(Mr Bolt) The ITC tend to take the lead in that, not
in the specific context of privacy. There are continuing discussions
with Ofcom and the ITC about the regulation of content on the
Internet, or rather the non-regulation of content and how Ofcom
is going to make sure with its light touch that it is going on
all right. I cannot say in this particular context of privacy,
subject to Judith's correction, it has ever arisen.
(Ms Barnes) That is right.
679. Are you a conciliation service, a tribunal
or a professional standards body? How would you describe yourselves?
(Lord Dubs of Battersea) Obviously we have a conciliatory
approach but essentially we are governed by statute and we deal
with complaints, and we have to achieve a finding as to each particular
complaint. Obviously we do a lot of things that would be seen
to be conciliatory in a more general sense, we try and take the
broadcaster with us when we do research, sometimes we do it jointly.
A lot of it is done with their good will, even if they do not
like our conclusions in all instances.
(Mr Bolt) We have to act through complaints to be
a professional standards body.
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