Communications Act 2003

337 Promotion of equal opportunities and training

(1) The regulatory regime for every service to which this section applies includes the conditions that OFCOM consider appropriate for requiring the licence holder to make arrangements for promoting, in relation to employment with the licence holder, equality of opportunity—

(a) between men and women; and

(b) between persons of different racial groups.

(2) That regime includes conditions requiring the licence holder to make arrangements for promoting, in relation to employment with the licence holder, the equalisation of opportunities for disabled persons.

(3) The regulatory regime for every service to which this section applies includes the conditions that OFCOM consider appropriate for requiring the licence holder to make arrangements for the training and retraining of persons whom he employs, in or in connection with—

(a) the provision of the licensed service; or

(b) the making of programmes to be included in that service.

(4) The conditions imposed by virtue of subsections (1) to (3) must contain provision, in relation to the arrangements made in pursuance of those conditions, requiring the person providing the service in question—

(a) to take appropriate steps to make those affected by the arrangements aware of them (including such publication of the arrangements as may be required in accordance with the conditions);

(b) from time to time, to review the arrangements; and

(c) from time to time (and at least annually) to publish, in such manner as he considers appropriate, his observations on the current operation and effectiveness of the arrangements.

(5) The conditions imposed by virtue of this section may include provision for treating obligations to make the arrangements mentioned in subsections (1) to (3), or to do anything mentioned in subsection (4), as discharged where a member of a group of companies to which the licence holder belongs—

(a) has made the required arrangements in relation to employment with the licence holder; or

(b) has done anything required by subsection (4) in relation to those arrangements.

(6) This section applies to a service if—

(a) it is a service the provision of which is authorised by a Broadcasting Act licence; and

(b) the requirements of both subsections (7) and (8) are satisfied in the case of that service.

(7) The requirements of this subsection are satisfied in the case of a service provided by a person if—

(a) that person employs, or is likely to employ, more than the threshold number of individuals in connection with the provision of licensed services; or

(b) the threshold number is exceeded by the aggregate number of individuals who are, or are likely to be, employed in that connection by members of a group of companies comprising that person and one or more other bodies corporate.

(8) The requirements of this subsection are satisfied in the case of a service if the licence authorising the provision of that service authorises either that service or another service authorised by that licence to be provided on a number of days in any year which exceeds the threshold number of days (whether or not the service is in fact provided on those days).

(9) In this section—

• “disabled” has the same meaning as in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (c. 50);

• “licensed service”, in relation to an employee or likely employee of a person, means a service the provision of which—

  (a)

  by that person, or

  (b)

  by a body corporate which is a member of the same group of companies as that person,

  is authorised by a Broadcasting Act licence;

• “racial group” has the same meaning as in the Race Relations Act 1976 (c. 74) or, in Northern Ireland, the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 (S.I. 1997/869 (N.I. 6));

• “the threshold number” means—

  (a)

  in relation to individuals, twenty; and

  (b)

  in relation to days, thirty-one.

(10) For the purposes of this section a person is a member of a group of companies to which a person licensed to provide a service belongs if, and only if, both of them are bodies corporate and either—

(a) one of them is controlled by the other; or

(b) both of them are controlled by the same person.

(11) In subsection (10) “controlled” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act.

(12) The Secretary of State may, by order—

(a) amend subsection (1) by adding any other form of equality of opportunity that he considers appropriate;

(b) amend the definition of “the threshold number” in subsection (9).

(13) No order is to be made containing provision authorised by subsection (12) unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.