Office of Public Sector Information

Co-operation with the public teletext provider

11 (1) The Welsh Authority must grant access to the public teletext provider to the facilities that are reasonably required by him for the purposes of, or in connection with, the provision of the public teletext service.

(2) The Welsh Authority may require the public teletext provider to pay a reasonable charge in respect of facilities access to which is granted under this paragraph.

(3) In the event of a dispute, the amount of the charge is to be determined by OFCOM.

Programme standards

12 It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority in relation to their public television services to observe the standards set under section 319.

13 It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to comply with a direction given to them by OFCOM with respect to the establishment of procedures for the handling and resolution of complaints about the observance by the Authority of standards set under section 319.

14 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to comply with directions given to them by OFCOM with respect to any of the matters mentioned in sub-paragraph (2).

(2) Those matters are—

(a) the exclusion from any of the Authority’s public television services of a particular advertisement, or its exclusion in particular circumstances;

(b) the descriptions of advertisements and methods of advertising to be excluded from the services so provided (whether generally or in particular circumstances); and

(c) the methods of sponsorship to be excluded from those services (whether generally or in particular circumstances).

15 (1) This paragraph applies if OFCOM are satisfied—

(a) that the Welsh Authority have failed in any respect to perform any of their duties under paragraphs 12 to 14; and

(b) that the failure can be appropriately remedied by the inclusion in any or all of the Authority’s public television services of a correction or a statement of findings.

(2) OFCOM may direct the Welsh Authority to include a correction or a statement of findings (or both) in any one or more of their public television services.

(3) A direction may require the correction or statement of findings to be in such form, and to be included in programmes at such time or times, as OFCOM may determine.

(4) OFCOM are not to give a direction under this paragraph unless they have given the Welsh Authority a reasonable opportunity of making representations to them about the matters appearing to OFCOM to provide grounds for the giving of the direction.

(5) Where the Welsh Authority include a correction or a statement of findings in any of their public television services in pursuance of a direction under this paragraph, the Authority may announce that they are doing so in pursuance of such a direction.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph a statement of findings, in relation to a case in which OFCOM are satisfied that the Welsh Authority have failed to perform a duty imposed on them under paragraphs 12 to 14, is a statement of OFCOM’s findings in relation to that failure.

Directions with respect to advertising

16 (1) The Welsh Authority must comply with directions given to them by OFCOM with respect to any of the matters mentioned in sub-paragraph (2).

(2) Those matters are—

(a) the maximum amount of time to be given to advertisements in any hour or other period;

(b) the minimum interval which must elapse between any two periods given over to advertisements;

(c) the number of such periods to be allowed in any programme or in any hour or day; and

(d) the exclusion of advertisements from a specified part of S4C or S4C Digital.

(3) Directions under this paragraph—

(a) may be either general or specific;

(b) may be qualified or unqualified; and

(c) may make different provision for different parts of the day, different days of the week, different types of programmes or for other differing circumstances.

(4) In giving a direction under this paragraph, OFCOM shall take account of such of the international obligations of the United Kingdom as the Secretary of State may notify to them for the purposes of this paragraph.

Fairness standards

17 It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to secure the observance—

(a) in connection with the provision of their public television services, and

(b) in relation to the programmes included in those services,

of the code for the time being in force under section 107 of the 1996 Act (the fairness code).

Party political broadcasts

18 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to include—

(a) party political broadcasts, and

(b) referendum campaign broadcasts,

in every designated public service of theirs.

(2) The Welsh Authority must prepare, publish and from time to time review and revise their policy with respect to—

(a) party political broadcasts and referendum campaign broadcasts; and

(b) the manner in which they propose to perform their duty under sub-paragraph (1).

(3) The Welsh Authority’s policy may, in particular, include provision for determining—

(a) the political parties on whose behalf party political broadcasts may be made;

(b) in relation to each political party on whose behalf such broadcasts may be made, the length and frequency of the broadcasts; and

(c) in relation to each designated organisation on whose behalf referendum campaign broadcasts are required to be broadcast, the length and frequency of such broadcasts.

(4) That policy is to have effect subject to sections 37 and 127 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (c. 41) (only registered parties and designated organisations to be entitled to party political broadcasts or referendum campaign broadcasts).

(5) In preparing or revising their policy with respect to the inclusion of party political broadcasts or referendum campaign broadcasts in their designated public services, the Welsh Authority must have regard to—

(a) any views expressed for the purposes of this paragraph by the Electoral Commission; and

(b) any rules made by OFCOM under section 333.

(6) The services that are designated public services for the purposes of this paragraph are—

(a) S4C;

(b) S4C Digital; and

(c) any of the Welsh Authority’s other public television services which is designated for the purposes of this paragraph by the order under section 205 approving its provision.

(7) In this paragraph—

• “designated organisation”, in relation to a referendum, means a person or body designated by the Electoral Commission under section 108 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 in respect of that referendum; and

• “referendum campaign broadcast” has the meaning given by section 127 of that Act.

Duty to publicise complaints procedures etc.

19 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to make arrangements for securing that the matters mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) are brought to the attention of the public (whether by means of broadcasts or otherwise).

(2) Those matters are—

(a) OFCOM’s functions under Part 5 of the 1996 Act in relation to services provided by the Welsh Authority; and

(b) any procedures established by OFCOM or the Authority for the handling and resolution of complaints about the observance by the Authority of standards set under section 319.

Monitoring of programmes

20 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority—

(a) in respect of every programme included in any of their public television services, to retain a recording of the programme in the form, and for the period, specified by OFCOM;

(b) to comply with any request to produce such recordings to OFCOM for examination or reproduction; and

(c) to comply, to the extent that they are able to do so, with any request to produce to OFCOM a script or transcript of a programme included in any of their public television services.

(2) The period specified for the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)(a) must be a period not exceeding ninety days.

Compliance with international obligations

21 (1) OFCOM may give the Welsh Authority such directions as OFCOM consider appropriate for securing that all relevant international obligations are complied with.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Authority to comply with a direction under this paragraph.

(3) Before giving a direction under this paragraph, OFCOM must consult the Authority.

(4) In this paragraph “relevant international obligations” means the international obligations of the United Kingdom which have been notified to OFCOM by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this paragraph.

Services for the deaf and visually impaired

22 It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to observe the code for the time being in force under section 303 in the provision of—

(a) S4C Digital; and

(b) so much of any of the Welsh Authority’s other public television services as is provided in digital form.

Equality of opportunity

23 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to make such arrangements as they consider appropriate for promoting, in relation to employment with the Authority, equality of opportunity—

(a) between men and women; and

(b) between persons of different racial groups.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to make arrangements for promoting, in relation to employment with the Authority, the equalisation of opportunities for disabled persons.

(3) The Welsh Authority shall also make such arrangements as they consider appropriate for the training and retraining of persons whom they employ in or in connection with—

(a) the provision of one or more of their public services; or

(b) the making of programmes to be included in one or more of those services.

(4) The Welsh Authority—

(a) shall take all such steps as they consider appropriate for making persons affected by any arrangements made in pursuance of sub-paragraphs (1) to (3) aware of the arrangements (including the publication of the arrangements in such manner as they think fit);

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

(c) shall, from time to time (and at least annually), publish, in such manner as they consider appropriate, their observations on the current operation and effectiveness of the arrangements.

(5) Before making any arrangements in pursuance of any of sub-paragraphs (1) to (3) or determining the manner in which they will comply with sub-paragraph (4), the Welsh Authority must consult OFCOM.

(6) In this paragraph—

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

• “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)).

(7) The Secretary of State may by order amend sub-paragraph (1) by adding any other form of equality of opportunity that he considers appropriate to that sub-paragraph.

(8) No order is to be made containing provision authorised by sub-paragraph (7) unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.

Meaning of Welsh Authority’s public services

24 (1) In this Part of this Schedule, references to the Welsh Authority’s public services are references to the following—

(a) S4C;

(b) S4C Digital; and

(c) the services the provision of which by the Authority is authorised by or under section 205.

(2) References in this Schedule to a public television service of the Welsh Authority are references to any public service of the Authority which is a television programme service.