Supplementary written evidence from Ofcom
OFCOM: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONVERGED REGULATION
I am writing with information Ed Richards undertook
to provide to the Committee of Public Accounts when he gave evidence
on 14 December 2010 on the National Audit Office's report "Ofcom:
the effectiveness of converged regulation."
This information is attached as follows:
— attachment
1—a detailed breakdown of Ofcom's expenditure in 2009-10
as given in figure 4 of the AO's report (Q138 of the uncorrected
transcript of Ed Richards' evidence refers). As requested, his
is provided to the nearest £100k and against the same cost
elements and has been agreed y the NAO;
— attachment
2—a ranking by colleague of travel, subsistence and expenses
in 2009-10 (Q139 and Q140 refer). We note that colleagues incurring
the greatest costs are overwhelmingly engaged in international
activity (particularly in connection with spectrum management,
with its inherent cross-border implications) and that we undertake
this on behalf of the UK under direction from the Government.
Additionally, some colleagues incurred costs for collective rather
than individual activities (eg international travel and events
organisation). We have not broken these down to attribute all
costs to the specific individuals who incurred them as this would
only be possible at disproportionate cost, but we have identified
whether costs were incurred on colleague or departmental credit
cards; and
— attachment
3—a note about our approach to contingency and its identification
and use in 2009-10 (Q83 refers).
As promised, we will provide further information
about the costs of restructuring to meet our Spending Review settlement
when the final details are settled following a consultation process
on proposed redundancies (Q111 refers). We anticipate doing so
during the course of February. I trust that is acceptable to the
Committee.
January 2011
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