The PSA publishes its Levy and Business Plan and Budget for 2017/18

The PSA today publishes its Business Plan and Budget for 2017/18, following formal approval by Ofcom. The Plan provides clarity on our vision, mission and strategic priorities and sets out the range of activities that we will undertake towards achieving them. Included within the Plan is: a focus on the consumer experience and how to help them make better informed choices; implementation of outcomes to our review of the implementation of Code 14; and maintenance of the efficiencies established during 2016/17.

A full formal consultation process was undertaken between December 2016 and January 2017, with comments received from Mobile UK and AIME. Our full statement in response to these two sets of comments is published alongside the Business Plan and Budget, at the bottom of this page.

2017/18 Levy
The adjusted levy on the phone-paid services industry has been set at 0.44%, and will apply from 1 April 2016. This levy has been set based on an estimated market size for 2017/18 of £430.5m, as measured by outpayments from network operators to their industry clients i.e. after retaining their network charges from total revenues received.

The amount to be funded by this levy in 2017/18 is £1.875m, a reduction of 31% on 2016/17. This figure takes into account other income available to the PSA to fund the cost of regulation, including collected fines and administrative charges.

Four year levy plan
We announce our intention to hold the amount to be funded by the levy to £1.875m or lower for each of the years to 2020/21. We are able to plan for this because of the high level of fines collected in 2016/17 and do so in recognition of our funders’ wish to be able to accurately budget for their levy payments with a high degree of confidence that it will remain at a reduced level and with minimal annual variance. We will annually review this commitment in light of any budgetary pressures on PSA’s ability to fulfill its statutory obligations and any other significant market changes.

Registration
Registration is mandatory for most providers operating in the phone-paid services market and allows for: the provision of transparency of the market; assistance in Due Diligence Risk Assessment and Control; and easy access for consumers to customer care arrangements.
The registration fee will remain unchanged at £155 + VAT and exemptions will remain the same.

Links
Mobile UK consultation comments
AIME consultation comments
PSA Statement following consultation
PSA Business Plan and Budget 2017/18

Arrangements as to the payment, adjustment and auditing of the levy are set out in Annex 1 to the Code of Practice.
Arrangements as to registration and the registration fee, including exemptions, are set out in paragraph 3.4 of the Code of Practice.