I retired from Ofcom in December 2016 and launched my broadcasting and video-on-demand compliance consultancy in early 2017.

In addition to my personal compliance consultancy, in the autumn of 2017 I was invited by the leading West End media law firm of Simons Muirhead and Burton to advise their clients as a Legal Consultant.

When Ofcom was set up, I joined it in 2004 as Director of Broadcasting and Spectrum Law. Full details of my subsequent career and experience at Ofcom in managing all types of standards complaints, investigations, sanctions and issues are below.

• Head of Harm Offence and Fairness Standards

  November 2010 – December 2016 (6 years 2 months) London, United Kingdom

  I headed the teams of Standards Executives dealing with Ofcom investigations into compliance with Sections One to Eight of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. These cover Protection of Children, Harm and Offence, Crime, Religion, Due Impartiality, Elections, and Fairness and Privacy.During this period I:

  • regularly dealt at all levels with Ofcom’s TV and radio stakeholders;
  • managed the Ofcom project looking into possibility of Daytime PIN Protection (Call for Inputs, 2016);
  • managed Ofcom research projects into Violence on TV (published July 2014); and Offensive Language on TV and Radio (published September 2016);
  • led training sessions for and gave presentations to UK broadcasters and stakeholders on a wide variety of subjects from due impartiality to the portrayal of suicide in the media;
  • led training sessions for and gave presentations to regulators abroad (eg French CSA, EPRA) on Ofcom’s work and role, on issues from hate speech to mental health as portrayed in the media.
• Senior Standards Manager

  November 2006 – November 2010 (4 years 1 month) London, United Kingdom

  Managed Ofcom investigations across the whole of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, including Sections Nine and Ten (Commercial References and Sponsorship).In addition to this work, I led Ofcom’s extensive and complex negotiations with stakeholders which culminated in: the UK Government’s introduction of Regulations in December 2009 governing the content of UK-based On-Demand Programme Services; and Ofcom’s designation of the Association for Television On Demand (ATVOD) in 2010 as “co-regulator” to regulate UK-based On-Demand Programme Services.

  I also managed the project which led to Ofcom’s report to the DCMS, “Sexually Explicit Material and Video On Demand Services”, September 2011.This in turn contributed to the UK Government’s decision to tighten up regulation of pornography in UK-based VOD services.

• Director, Broadcasting and Spectrum Law

  January 2004 – November 2006 (2 years 11 months) London, United Kingdom

  One of Ofcom’s first two legal directors, leading on broadcasting and spectrum law issues.During this time, I led Ofcom’s legal work:

  • culminating in Ofcom’s successful delegation in 2005 of Ofcom’s statutory powers to regulate broadcast advertising to the Advertising Standards Authority;
  • on the successful move to digital switchover, including the writing of all the main broadcasters’ digital replacement television licences, and dealing with related matters; and
  • advising Ofcom on its contribution to the UK’s negotiations which led to the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010).