Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what plans his Department has to enable Ofcom to regulate poor customer service.

Ofcom’s principal duty, established by the Communications Act 2003, is to further the interests of citizens and consumers, and Ofcom sets its regulatory framework to promote good outcomes for consumers, in line with this duty.

For telecoms, Ofcom has a duty to set General Conditions with which communications providers must comply. These are published on Ofcom’s website and include conditions on complaints handling and dispute resolution. In addition to this, for example, Ofcom has introduced requirements to send end-of-contract notifications and published guidance to help providers support vulnerable consumers. Ofcom also publishes the Comparing Customer Service (CCS) report to show how customer service levels compare across the telecoms industry.