Thanks to the watchdog’s liberal pre-election advice, drawling condescension will pass as impartiality

‘Tonight I’ll be asking the most important question of all – who was St George and why do we celebrate him?” Supposing a UK channel wanted to prove that politicians make such abysmal current affairs presenters that there is nothing for regulators to worry about, it could hardly do better than hire Jacob Rees-Mogg.

After a year presenting State of the Nation on GB News , its presenter comes across, oddly on a station that increasingly betrays some interest in professional standards, as fully as unendurable as he was in the days when, as a cabinet minister, he’d leave crested notes on civil service work stations. “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon. With every good wish, Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.”

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The school assessor’s minimalist judgments are here to stay. But how would inspectors rate the government?

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Customers who suffer loss of service should get compensation without having to ask. But many, unaware of their rights and facing opaque rules, do not

Broadband customers who suffer service failures may be missing out on money they are owed because they are unaware of their rights to automatic compensation.

Under the telecoms regulator’s “ automatic compensation ” scheme, customers should receive set daily payments of up to £9.76 if an internet outage is not rectified after two days, or if an installation date is missed.

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The boss of the broadcast regulator has expressed concern about how the chase for audience ratings is harming the industry

Television has become more “exploitative and cruel”, according to Michael Grade , the chair of the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom.

“The exploitation dial has been switched up more and more for ratings,” said the peer and former chair of the BBC board. “It makes me mad. I really don’t like it or enjoy it.

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IDS says it could cut nearly 1,000 jobs and save £300m a year while maintaining Monday-to-Saturday first-class service

• Business live – latest updates

The owner of Royal Mail has asked the industry regulator to let it reduce deliveries of second-class letters to just two or three days a week, cutting nearly 1,000 jobs and saving £300m a year in the process.

Responding to watchdog Ofcom’s consultation on reforming the universal service rules amid declining letter volumes, International Distributions Services (IDS) proposed paring back the Monday-to-Saturday second-class service to “every other weekday”.

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Trade body says stopping Royal Mail letter service on a Tuesday or Wednesday would be far less damaging

Greetings card retailers have urged the communications industry regulator to cut a midweek delivery day rather than Saturday if it must reduce Britain’s letter services, as a consultation on postal reforms closes.

The Greeting Card Association (GCA) has said that stopping delivery of standard letters on Tuesday or Wednesday would be far less damaging than a previously mooted plan to drop Saturday deliveries.

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Emma Gilthorpe is tasked with turning company around and takes up newly created CEO role in May

Royal Mail has appointed a senior executive from Heathrow to become its next boss, charged with delivering a turnaround to the ailing postal company.

Emma Gilthorpe, who has been chief operating officer at the airport since 2020, will join Royal Mail in May.

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Joint letter from regulators targets finance and utility sectors for volume and tone of correspondence to vulnerable customers

• Record 6.7m people in UK are in financial difficulty, warns charity

UK regulators are warning they will take “robust action” against firms that are putting consumers’ mental health at risk by using threatening tones and inundating already-vulnerable borrowers with letters, calls and emails, about their debts.

Watchdogs have published a joint letter , calling on companies to improve their debt collection practices, after identifying shortcomings across the financial services industry, as well the communications, water and energy sectors.

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The law hasn’t changed. Yet the regulator is allowing these channels to transmit partisan political content

• Stewart Purvis is a former Ofcom content partner and Chris Banatvala was Ofcom’s founding director of standards

Ofcom has signalled the start of the 2024 election season by issuing its advice to broadcasters on coverage of the local elections in May. It does this before every election to help its licensees maintain their legal obligation of impartiality. But in our editorial and regulatory experience, stretching back 40 years, there has never been so much cause for confusion and concern about what lies ahead in broadcast coverage of both local and general election campaigns.

Is Ofcom going to allow senior party officials to present election programmes as long as they are not actual candidates? Could a channel host party loyalists from only one side, delivering nightly unchallenged polemics on each day’s campaign news? Will channels with poor compliance records and fewer viewers than the public service broadcasters be given greater flexibility in achieving “due impartiality” on the basis of what Ofcom calls “ audience expectations ”?

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