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Thames Water fined for “entirely foreseeable” pollution
Jonathan Grimes
Many of us use mobile telecommunications devices on a regular basis. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, few of us think about the laws that enable us to ring our family and friends and to conduct business from some of the remotest of locations. In fact, making that important Mother’s Day call may depend on an electronic communications operator installing telecommunications equipment on somebody’s land without their consent.
What allows the operator to do this is the Electronic Communications Code. On 28 June 2012, the Law Commission published a Consultation Paper on the Code, which has invited responses by 28 October 2012. Although the Code applies throughout the United Kingdom, this particular project relates to the law of England and Wales.
The Code regulates the use of networks that support broadband, mobile internet and telephone, cable television and landlines. As computer access becomes as important in our society as the use of a watch, it is difficult to imagine regulations of more significance than the Code to the daily lives of most of the population.
The primary purpose of the Consultation Paper is to improve the balance between the rights and obligations of the communication operator and the rights and obligations of others, in particular the landowner upon whose property the equipment is installed. The authors of the Consultation Paper invite comments on the following:
The responses to the Consultation Paper will be analysed to produce a Report containing recommendations to Government. Kingsley Napley LLP will be taking part in the Consultation process and our response will appear on this blog when they are submitted. If you would like to provide us with some comments yourself, we shall be pleased to take these into account in preparing the response.
We welcome views and opinions about the issues raised in this blog. Should you require specific advice in relation to personal circumstances, please use the form on the contact page.
Jonathan Grimes
Laura Sylvester
Hannah Eales
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