Annual Report for the year to 31 December, 2006

TAG is constituted by adoption of a Constitution and registered as Charity No 1051222. Its address is 36 Victoria Street, Wetherby, Yorkshire LS22 6RE. This is the second full year of operating under its new name (it was formerly the Telecommunications Action Group until 27 October 2004) and under the revised aims which embrace all forms of electronic communications, including both telecommunications and broadcasting, to reflect the legislative changes introduced by the Communications Act 2003 and the setting up of the regulator, Ofcom.

The charity trustees during the year to 31 December, 2006 were:

Mrs Ruth Myers Chair
Mr Bill Pechey Vice Chair
Mr R R Trotter Secretary
Mr David M Myers Treasurer

The Honorary Officers are the Trustees of TAG, they hold office for two years and are eligible for re-election bi-annually in rotation.

The member organisations of TAG are British Deaf Association, Deaf Broadcasting Council, Deafax, Deafness Support Network, deafPLUS, Hearing Concern, LINK, National Association of Deafened People, National Deaf Children’s Society, Royal Association in Aid of Deaf People, RNID, Scottish Council on Deafness and Sense.

TAG’s mission is to promote equality of access to electronic communications, including telecommunications and broadcasting, for deaf, deafened, hard-of-hearing, deafblind people and sign language users, especially in terms of function and cost. A good working relationship has been established with Ofcom, PhoneAbility, BT Age and Disability Action and other bodies. TAG is represented on SG16, the Consumer Forum on Communications and the Consumer Expert Group, and is a member of the United Kingdom Council on Deafness. TAG responds to relevant industry documents and endeavours to attend as many events as possible to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing people have a ‘visible voice’. TAG monitors European issues and developments in EU Directives.

Three issues of our newsletter Sequel, which is distributed to approx 400 opinion formers and service providers, were produced in 2006. The magazine carried articles ranging from a ruling by the Information Commissioner’s Office on the use of third parties in relay calls and a report on the BBCiPlayer to digital switchover and the growth of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Sequel is created by an editorial team led by Stephen Fleming, and TAG appreciates their work. The newsletter complements TAG’s website at www.tagcomm.org.uk which TAG’s webmaster, Geoff Brown, keeps up to date.

The main focus of TAG’s work in 2006 has again been on universal service in telecommunications and access services in broadcasting, but there has been an increasing need to monitor the development of new services such as VoIP and digital switchover. TAG responded to a further Ofcom statement on Universal Service and also received the report on the research that Ofcom funded into additional relay services, such as video relay and captioned relay. The research underlined the importance and potential of these services to allow access to telecommunications for thousands of users, and TAG therefore continues to be disappointed that there is no adequate basis on which these services can be funded. Following Hearing Concern’s lead, TAG took its first steps in the campaign for a Telecommunications Relay Fund, which will continue during 2007. TAG also responded to the EU Review of the Framework Directive, stressing the importance for the Directive to keep pace with developments in technology rather than being historically based. An increasing number of suppliers are now offering cheap telephone calls over broadband services, but the pricing of text calls over these services as well as technical difficulties in setting them up have created problems during the year, which TAG continues to monitor.

TAG also obtained a ruling from the Information Commissioners Office that call centres and banks cannot use the Data Protection Act as a reason for refusing to take calls through RNID Typetalk, and that the very fact that the user is making the call through the relay service constitutes consent to the use of a third party as long as security questions are answered properly.

The work on access services, especially subtitling and signing, is ongoing, both to ensure that the targets for these services continue to increase without a drop in quality, and also that they are properly monitored. TAG continues to meet with relevant personnel at Ofcom and to attend various meetings on this subject, both concerning the access service targets and revision of the guidelines for how they are delivered. Quality of subtitling has also given rise to concern, especially on Channel 4, with which TAG continues an ongoing dialogue. Digital switchover is constantly in the background, and a great deal of time and effort is taken up with meetings and papers generated by the Consumer Expert Group, on which the Chair, Ruth Myers, represents TAG. A further cause for concern is the lack of access services on video on demand, catch-up TV and chase TV, all services that are increasing in importance. These are not regulated so unless action is taken deaf viewers will continue to be denied access to these services.

TAG held a major and very successful seminar on emerging technologies at the DTI conference centre, at which speakers included Ed Richards, at that time Chief Operating Officer of Ofcom and now Ofcom’s Chief Executive, and John Whittingdale, the Chairman of the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport. The proceedings of this conference were subsequently published on CD.

The Trustees appreciate the help and support given by member organisations and organisations with which we are in contact.