Consultation on our Business Plan and Budget 2018/19

As a regulator, we aim to be as open and transparent as we can, including our strategy, plans and activities and the resources needed to support these.

Today we set out how we intend to work to deliver our mission in the next financial year as well as what we have achieved this year.

By the end of this financial year, we expect to have:

• handled 260,000 contacts from consumers, over 90% of them being automated
• taken 15,000 complaints from consumers
• worked on 500 cases, of which roughly 80% will be handled quickly and informally
• handled 100 enforcement cases
• provided over 1,000 pieces of bespoke compliance advice
• reviewed and revised our Supporting procedures to ensure our sanctioning is effective
• consulted on changes to our registration requirements
• worked with Ofcom to review the regulation of 118 and 070 services
• finalised our framework agreement with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

These are just some of the highlights – more details can be found in the full document. We are now consulting on our 2018/19 Business Plan and Budget.

In 2018/19 we are assuming that we will handle a similar number of complaints, contacts and cases and we have the resources in place to handle a similar number of compliance requests.

In addition, we have a number of flagship projects which we are planning in 2018/19, including:

• piloting a consumer panel to give us direct consumer feedback on our policy and strategy
• furthering our understanding of consumer engagement with services, through improved analysis through our annual market review and behavioural research capabilities
• improving our consumer communications both to complainants and users of phone-paid services
• developing an enforcement priorities framework.

Of course we have to ensure we are sufficiently funded to meet our objectives but one our of key values is to operate not just effectively but as efficiently as possible. 

We are proud of our track record in doing more for less and this year is no exception. We are proposing a cash flat budget, equivalent to a 4% reduction in real terms on last year and a 20% reduction since 2015/16. 

Back in April, we announced our intention to hold the levy at a constant level for the next four years. This not only gives our funders clarity and confidence, but it also ensures the cost of regulation is minimised.

This year, we are proposing to go even further, with an additional £75,000 cut in the levy. That means we have managed to reduce the levy by 34% (or £1m in real terms) since 2016/17.

In addition to financial stability we want to give industry regulatory certainty and are intending to keep the current Code of Practice in place for the next three years.

The Business Plan and Budget is now open for consultation. Details about how to respond can be found in Section 8 of the consultation document.