(1)OFCOM must provide the Secretary of State, at least 24 hours before publication, with any information that they propose to publish.
(2)If exceptional circumstances make it impracticable to provide the information to the Secretary of State 24 hours before publication it must instead be provided to the Secretary of State as long before publication as is practicable.
(3)Subsections (1) and (2) have effect in any particular case subject to any agreement made between the Secretary of State and OFCOM in that case.
(4)The Secretary of State may by regulations specify descriptions of information in relation to which the duty under subsection (1) does not apply.
(5)Before making regulations under subsection (4), the Secretary of State must consult OFCOM.
(6)Information provided to the Secretary of State under this section may not be disclosed by the Secretary of State during the protected period, except to another Minister of the Crown.
(7)A Minister of the Crown to whom the information is disclosed under subsection (6) may not disclose the information during the protected period to any other person.
(8)A Minister of the Crown may not make any representations to OFCOM during the protected period that specify or describe changes that the Minister considers should be made to information that has been provided under this section when it is published.
(9)In this section—
“the protected period”, in relation to information provided to the Secretary of State under this section, means the period beginning with the provision of the information and ending when either of the following occurs—
OFCOM publish the information;
OFCOM inform the Secretary of State that they consent to the disclosure of the information;
“Minister of the Crown” has the same meaning as in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975.]
Textual Amendments
F1Ss. 24A, 24B inserted (31.7.2017) by Digital Economy Act 2017 (c. 30), ss. 98(2), 118(6) (with s. 98(3)); S.I. 2017/765, reg. 2(aa)