Action on unlawful P2P file-sharing

New ideas to allow for swifter and more flexible measures to tackle unlawful peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing are published today by the Government.

The Government is seeking views on the idea of including a power, under the forthcoming Digital Economy Bill, for the Secretary of State to direct Ofcom to introduce technical measures to clamp down on piracy, if necessary.

This would involve an obligation on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take action against individual, repeat infringers - for example by blocking access to download sites, reducing broadband speeds, or by temporarily suspending the individual’s Internet account.

Evidence on whether such action is required would be provided in regular reports from Ofcom to the Secretary of State.

Previously, it had been proposed that Ofcom would undergo a detailed process in order to ascertain that technical measures were required. With this approach, the earliest that measures could come into play was during 2012. The Government has now reached the view that, if action was deemed necessary, this might be too long to wait given the pressure put on the creative industries by piracy. The new ideas outlined today would potentially allow action to be taken earlier.

The Government is also considering adding account suspension to the list of technical measures that could be used only as a last resort against the hard core of copyright pirates.

To enable stakeholders to provide feedback on the new ideas, the Government has today issued an explanatory statement and extended the current consultation on unlawful P2P file sharing to 29 September. Responses received so far will still be given full consideration.

Minister for Digital Britain, Stephen Timms said:

“Technology and consumer behaviour is fast-changing and it’s important that Ofcom has the flexibility to respond quickly to deal with unlawful file-sharing.

“We’ve been listening carefully to responses to the consultation this far, and it’s become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders.

“So we look forward to hearing views on our new ideas, which along with those already received, will help us determine the best way to tackle this complex challenge.”

After listening to views from all sides, the Government is also seeking views on how the costs of the process should be covered. It proposes that some costs, such as the operating costs of sending out notifications and Ofcom’s costs as the Regulator, should be shared equally between ISPs and rights holders.

Cameron announces plans to reform quangos

David Cameron has set out plans to increase democratic accountability by reducing the number of quangos.

In a speech to the Reform think tank, David announced that some powers will be handed back to Ministers, some quangos will be reformed and slimmed down, and others – including Ofcom and the Qualifications, Curriculum and Development Agency - will cease to exist in their current form.

He stressed, "The problem today is that too much of what government does is actually done by people that no-one can vote out, by organisations that feel no pressure to answer for what happens and in a way that is relatively unaccountable."

The policy-making functions of Ofcom – such as deciding the future of local news and Channel 4 – will be handed back to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and the responsibilities of the Qualifications, Curriculum and Development Agency will be transferred to the Department for Children Schools and Families.

David explained that the Shadow Cabinet are reviewing every independent public body that exists in their department to see if they “perform a technical, fairness or transparency function.”

And he stressed that reforming quangos is "vital" to fix our broken politics and "bring real people power" to every aspect of political life:

"We want people to know that when Conservative politicians stand up and make promises, they're prepared to take responsibility and won't end up passing the buck. We want people to know that with a Conservative government, they will have more power, more control, more say over the things that matter to them. And above all we want people to know that change is possible; that things can be different; that they can make a difference."

Foster: Bank watchdogs paid £25m in bonus bonanza

Mon, 01 Jun 2009

Government regulators paid out £25m in bonuses to staff last year despite serious problems in many of the areas they regulate. £5½m of the bonuses went to executives earning over £100,000, according to figures revealed to the Liberal Democrats.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that:

• The FSA paid £19.7m in bonuses to staff last year, with £4m of that going to executives earning over £100,000 - despite the bank crisis
• Ofcom paid its execs an average bonus of £16,667 - despite failing to prevent thousands of consumers losing money in the TV quiz phone-in scandal
• Ofgem paid its execs an average bonus of £15,250 each - despite large increases in gas and electricity prices
• The top bonus paid out at the FSA was £90,000 - the highest paid at Ofcom was £56,400
• The average bonus paid to regulator executives was £19,100 - the average for other staff was £4,107

Commenting Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:

"We all accept the need to attract top-quality workers to the public sector but in some cases it appears these bonuses have been paid out despite serious failings."

"This government offered hard working teachers and nurses below inflation pay deals while doing nothing to curb regulator executives earning five figure bonuses."

"The size of some of these pay outs would be hard to justify at the best of times, but it looks especially bad in the current economic climate."

"Regulators must now follow the lead of those in the rest of the public sector who have promised to freeze executive pay."

Table 1: Breakdown of bonuses for the Financial Services Authority, Ofcom, Ofgem, The Pensions Regulator, Ofwat, the Office of Fair Trading, Postcomm, the Civil Aviation Authority, and the Office of Rail Regulation.

Regulator	Number of Staff	Amount paid in bonuses to staff in total	Average staff bonus	Number of Employees on salaries over £100,000	Proportion of total staff earning over £100,000	Amount paid in bonuses to staff on salaries over £100,000	Average bonus paid to saff on salaries over £100,000	Highest bonus paid
TPR	328	£321,531	£980	12	4%	£76,577	£6,381	£28,512
Ofcom	810	£1,974,280	£2,437	48	6%	£800,000	£16,667	£56,400
Ofgem	302	£404,199	£1,338	10	3%	£152,500	£15,250
Ofwat	193	£55,000	£285	4	2%	£30,000	£7,500	£20,000
OFT	700	£564,418	£806	11	2%	£77,107	£7,010	£16,414
Postcomm	>66	£175,167	£2,654	1	2%	£8,246	£8,246
CAA	962	£1,797,211	£1,868	24	2%	£430,170	£17,924
ORR	345	£449,787	£1,304	6	2%	£55,000	£9,167
FSA	2,489	£19,700,000	£7,915	174	7%	£3,912,380	£22,485	£90,000
Total	6195	£25,441,593	£4,107	290	5%	£5,541,980	£19,110

Source: All information was received from Freedom of Information responses.