SCHEDULE 1Amendments of primary legislation

PART 1Amendments of Communications Act 2003 coming into force on 21st December 2020

I156

After section 134AB M1 insert—

134ACUse of reports

1

The Secretary of State must have regard to reports received from OFCOM under section 134A, or published by OFCOM under section 134AA, when exercising functions for any of the relevant purposes.

2

The relevant purposes are—

a

the allocation of public funds for the bringing into operation of electronic communications networks;

b

the design of national broadband plans;

c

verifying the availability of services to which universal service conditions apply.

3

Any other public authority must have regard to reports published by OFCOM under section 134AA when exercising functions for either of the purposes specified in subsection (2)(a) and (b).