The Wireless Telegraphy (Licence Charges for the 900 MHz frequency band and the 1800 MHz frequency band) (Amendment and Further Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2016

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Wireless Telegraphy (Licence Charges for the 900 MHz frequency band and the 1800 MHz frequency band) (Amendment and Further Provisions) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/1709) (the “principal Regulations”), which revised the level of fees payable to the Office of Communications (“OFCOM”) in respect of the licences of the Public Wireless Networks licence class granted under section 8 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 (c. 36) for the use of the frequencies in the bands 880.0–960.0 MHz and 1710.0–1880.0 MHz.

Regulations 6(2) and 7(2) of the principal Regulations set out the formulae for calculating the fees payable from 31st October 2016 onwards. These formulae include “125.6”, which is the all items consumer price index (the “CPI”) for March 2013 as calculated by the UK Statistics Authority and applicable at the time when the principal Regulations were made. Regulation 2 of these Regulations replaces “125.6” with “98.1”, which is the CPI for March 2013 as subsequently calculated by the UK Statistics Authority in line with their latest methodology for calculating the CPI. This figure (98.1) is set out in the CPI time series dataset. The dataset is available on the Office for National Statistics’ website at https://www.ons.gov.uk.

OFCOM’s consultation document on these Regulations is available on OFCOM’s website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument. A full impact assessment has been produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in relation to the Wireless Telegraphy Act (Directions to OFCOM) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/3024), which the principal Regulations implement. A copy of that impact assessment is available from Information Economy, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET or at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/3024/impacts.