This is the first of a regular series of blogs designed to keep you in touch with the discussions in Panel meetings. The minutes are published in full as soon as possible after the meeting (they can be found here: http://www.communicationsconsumerpanel.org.uk/smartweb/agenda-and-minutes/2008,),. In the blog we will try to give you the edited highlights as close to the meeting as possible. Here are the edited highlights of our May meeting
On Tuesday 19th May I attended an event titled, "Policy making for places - rural proofing the work of government". The event was organised by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC). The event was to launch its rural proofing policy toolkit. A copy of the rural proofing toolkit can be downloaded here. The Panel has also devised its own policy development toolkit to ensure the consumer interest is taken into account when organisations develop its communications policy. The toolkit has been embedded across Ofcom and has been successful in encouraging a greater focus on consumer issues.
Those attending the event were a mix of policy advisors and practitioners, from the national to the local authority and borough level. They represented planning departments, Primary Care Trusts, UK tourism, the forestry commission, National Assemblies and Governments to name but a few.
Huw-Iranca Davies, the Minister for Rural Affairs, gave the keynote speech and set out DEFRA's current policy priorities. These are:
It was interesting to hear that both Huw Irranca Davies and Stuart Burgess (the Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities) cited broadband as an essential service for rural areas. The Minister said, "(those who live in rural areas) don't expect something different, they expect the same and the same access to essential services". He also said that his department was working closely with DCLG, BERR and the CRC to ensure rural areas of the UK do not fall behind in terms of broadband access.
Stuart Burgess talked about the difficulties of different legislation stopping people accessing a decent broadband network. He cited the example of Alston Moor. Here members of the community are trying to connect into and share the NHS fibre backbone, but due to data protection and security reasons the NHS will not allow it. He argued that services like tele-medicine could save the NHS many thousands of pounds in the locality and not allowing access to the network due to these concerns was a wrong-headed way to look at the issue. Stuart Burgess also argued that quality access to a broadband network is essential to a local economy in today's connected society.
We as a Panel work to ensure rural needs taken into account when communications policy is developed across government and the regulator. We have published a report that maps the current UK community schemes that are rolling-out next generation broadband networks. We are also looking at the issue of mobile phone coverage in the UK and what impact mobile coverage not-spots have on people.
I have just posted the below to the http://digitalengagement.org/ blog. For those who are interested in issues around digital inclusion it is a great way to engage with people and organisations as we work towards solutions that close the digital divide.
I think the digital world is fantastic and so do all you, but maybe some of those who don't agree have right on their side, at least from where they sit; perhaps the services that some people want are simply not available. Stop for a minute to think about the characteristics of those groups of people who are most likely not to be on-line: older people, people with a disability and people on low incomes, for example. These groups of people are likely to be particularly heavy users of public services. Stop for another minute and think about the quality of public services that are available on-line and you might just have found the key to some digital exclusion.
There is a mass of public service information on-line, but very few truly interactive public services. the sort of services that offer us something new, different and better than public service offerings off-line. It has proved particularly difficult to get public service providers to invest in digital services that could really make a difference. In conversations with providers, it is never long before the chicken and egg problem crops up - we will invest in the services when the network is there to support them and make them available to all citizens and consumers.
Well now is that time. Recent Communications Consumer Panel research shows that people are anticipating a time, not very far away, when telemedicine and other such digital services will be making their lives better. These people will be sorely disappointed unless public service providers start to play catch up pretty quickly. So I think, we should make sure that a significant plank of our digital action going forward is focussed on bringing about the kind of change that will be required at the heart of public service delivery at local and importantly, national levels.
There is no question that more people would go on-line if only they knew how good the digital world can be, if they had the skills and if the costs were manageable. But maybe, the fact that some people don't want to go on line is quite rational and it will take digital public services to persuade them it is worth the effort.
The Communications Consumer Panel published its 2009/10 Work Plan today. We consulted widely on the draft plan, but would welcome any comments and suggestions on the topics that we intend to cover or indeed any that people might feel ought to have been in the plan.
In drawing it up we were guided by the consumer and citizen research into attitudes to broadband that we published earlier in the year. This said very clearly that broadband had moved from being a ‘nice to have' and was now something on which ‘no one should miss out'. We will therefore be devoting a significant part of our efforts to ensure that the consumer and citizen voice is heard clearly in the discussions about the implementation of the Digital Britain and Digital Inclusion Plans.
We support the concept of a Universal Service Commitment to ensure that all homes have the ability to access decent speed broadband and will be working to ensure that this is implemented in a way which meets the needs of consumers and citizens.
Consumer willingness to use broadband services is affected by their concerns about the security and potential misuse of their personal data. We will continue to highlight this issue and seek reassurance for users.
The consumer agenda in communications is very wide. We will continue to monitor, comment on and take action where we have a concern, across a wide range of issues. These will include mobile, consumer protection, next generation broadband access, digital TV switchover and monitoring the operation of the code on broadband speeds, which the Panel were instrumental in pursuing last year.
We would welcome any comments or suggestions.