Government supports ad self-regulation

The Government has hinted it may extend self-regulation to the ad industry in its white paper proposing a single regulatory body for the entire communications sector.

It supports self-regulation and has no plans to introduce any further statutory restrictions on advertising in this autumn’s white paper, Patricia Hewitt, minister for small businesses and e-commerce, told a meeting of more than 100 chief executives from UK agencies hosted by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising last Friday.

“We are very supportive of self-regulation and are confident that it will continue to deliver high standards. But what we need to do is sort out the present alphabet soup of regulators,” she said.

The white paper being drawn up by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport will bring under one umbrella the bodies overseeing the industry, including the Independent Television Commission, the Radio Authority, Broadcasting Standards Commission and the BBC governors, and Oftel.