Hard-Hitting Report Suppressed by Government?

The Government is continuing to suppress publication of a hard-hitting report into the conduct of telecommunication companies despite Planning Minister Yvette Cooper telling the House of Commons on October 10th that it would be released SHORTLY. A Freedom of Information Act request was also submitted some time ago for the release of this document, yet still it is being withheld.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received the report from Professor Allmendinger of Reading University in March 2005 but has repeatedly refused to release it despite numerous requests for its contents to be made public. Arup and Reading University were commissioned by the Government in 2004 to carry out a study into the extent of pre-planning consultation by mobile phone operators and their adherence to the code of best practice in the process of erecting base stations.

Mast Sanity receives regular complaints of widespread abuse of the relevant Government guidelines and codes of best practice by telecommunications companies. Despite this the Government continues to turn a blind eye to the serious failure of companies to adhere to the industry code and guidelines agreed between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Mobile Operators Association.

“Withholding this report amounts to a deliberate attempt by the Government to suppress information which should have already been put in the public domain in the public interest. This cynical and deliberate action by the Government has allowed telecommunications companies to continue to erect phone masts while openly flouting Government guidelines and codes of best practice and ignoring the wishes of local communities affected by masts,” says Mast Sanity Press Officer Sian Meredith. “The five mobile phone operators appear have so much control over the Government that Ministers refuse to release anything that may cause any embarrassment to the industry. No other industry would get away with this complete lack of regulation. "What is even more curious is that Planning Minister Yvette Cooper publicly criticised Vodafone for their failure to carry out pre-planning consultation in her own constituency and yet has so far refused to release this report. The Government may be waiting until as many masts as possible have been erected before they release the report knowing that once the masts are up it is almost impossible to get them removed no matter what guidelines or codes have been flouted in order to get them erected.”

Amanda Wesley, Mast Sanity trustee says, “The ODPM seem to have honed the skill of evading this issue to a fine art, and obviously use a different dictionary to the rest of the English-speaking world, as 'shortly' and 'consultation' mean something else to the rest of us! The Planning Minister is now in danger of misleading the House given that the definition of SHORTLY may be reasonably interpreted as a few days or weeks.”

Notes for Editors

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has put pressure on the telecomms operators by requiring the operators each to achieve 80% coverage of the UK - despite the short range of 3G masts - by 2007: www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1143966

In 2004 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister commissioned a study by the University of Reading and Arup to assess the impact that the code of best practice has had since its introduction and how local authorities have implemented the code and how the public perceives its operation.