Communications Act 2003

Restrictions on digital licence holding

78 (1) Section 5 of the 1996 Act (restrictions on holding licences) shall be amended as follows.

(2) For “The Commission” and “the Commission”, wherever occurring, there shall be substituted “OFCOM”.

(3) In subsection (2) (incidental requirements to provide information), after paragraph (d) there shall be inserted—

“(da) impose conditions in a licence requiring the licence holder, if a body corporate, to give OFCOM notice, after they have occurred and irrespective of whether proposals for them have fallen to be notified, of changes, transactions or events affecting—

(i) shareholdings in the body; or

(ii) the directors of the body;

(db) impose conditions in a licence enabling OFCOM to require the licence holder to provide them with such information as they may reasonably require for determining—

(i) whether the licence holder is a disqualified person in relation to that licence by virtue of Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act; or

(ii) whether any such requirements as are mentioned in subsection (1)(b) have been and are being complied with by or in relation to the licence holder;”.

(4) In subsection (6)—

(a) in paragraph (a), for “complained of” there shall be substituted “constituting their grounds for revoking the licence”.

(b) in paragraph (b)(i), for “Parts III and IV of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act” there shall be substituted “the requirements imposed by or under Schedule 14 to the Communications Act 2003”.

(5) In subsection (7)—

(a) paragraph (a) shall cease to have effect; and

(b) in paragraph (b), for “Part IV of that Schedule” there shall be substituted “Part 1 of Schedule 14 to the Communications Act 2003”.

(6) In subsection (8), for the words from “a failure” to the end of paragraph (c) there shall be substituted “a disqualification under Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act or a contravention of a requirement imposed by or under Schedule 14 to the Communications Act 2003,”.