Regulating Communications in the UK

Abstract

On the 12 December 2000, the British government presented its Communications White Paper A New Future for Communications. This document, which sets out the government's plans for a communications act, was jointly produced by the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and was published after the protracted period of consultation which followed the 1998 Green Paper entitled Regulating Communications: Approaching Convergence in the Information Age. Within the White Paper, the government envisaged that its recommendations should ensure that the UK would become home to the most dynamic and competitive marketplace in the world. Simultaneously, it suggested that these industrial objectives could be reconciled with social goals such as ensuring citizens and consumer rights to a universal access of diverse, high quality services and materials.¹