UK: Conservatives would strip regulator of policy-making functions and broadcasting controls

[the guardian] David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said today that he would take away Ofcom's policy making powers and cut back the communications regulator "by a huge amount" if his party wins next year's general election.

Cameron told BBC Breakfast he planned to save taxpayers money by slimming down Ofcom, including axing its communications department, and other public bodies if he becomes prime minister next year.

"Give Ofcom, or give a new body, the technical function of handing out the licences and regulating lightly the content that is on the screens," he said.

"But it shouldn't be making policy, it shouldn't have its own communications department, the head of Ofcom [Ed Richards] is paid almost half a million pounds," Cameron added. "We could slim this body down a huge amount and save a lot of money for the taxpayer."

Ofcom was established by Labour in the 2003 Communications Act and formally took over responsibility for regulating the broadcasting and telecoms sectors on 29 December that year, replacing five bodies - the Independent Television Commission, Radio Authority, Oftel, Radio Communications Agency and Broadcasting Standards Commission.

The regulator has been heavily involved in the formulation of communications policy since then, including the recent Digital Britain report.

Cameron will expand on his party's plans for cutting back on quangos and public bodies in a speech to the Reform think tank later today.

"This growth in the number of quangos, and in the scope of their influence, raises important questions for our democracy and politics," he will say.

"Too many state actions, services and decisions are carried out by people who cannot be voted out by the public, by organisations that feel no pressure to answer for what happens – in a way that is completely unaccountable.

"The growth of the quango state is, I believe, one of the main reasons people feel that nothing ever changes; nothing will ever get done and that the state just passes the buck and sends them from pillar to post instead of sorting out problems."

Cameron will add: "We must reduce the number of quangos in this country. But we must do so in a way that is responsible and which recognises that there are circumstances in which quangos have a useful and important part to play in democratic politics."

"With a Conservative government any delegation of power by a minister to a quango will not mean a corresponding delegation of responsibility. Even when power is delegated to a quango, the minister remains responsible for the outcome. They set the rules under which the quango operates."

Tories would cut Ofcom powers, says David Cameron. Media regulator's policy-making powers will be removed if Conservatives win next election, says leader