Pirate Stations in West Yorkshire - July 2012

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Detail: Prosecutions and enforcement action against pirate radio stations in W Yorkshire, Group: Broadcasting:-

Thank you for your request for information regarding Pirate Radio Stations broadcasting in
the West Yorkshire county from January 2005 until January 2012, which we received on 16
June 2012 and have considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).

You asked:

1. How many prosecutions against individuals have taken place between the specified
dates?

15 prosecutions.

2. Out of the number of persons identified, how many have had multiple prosecutions?

1 person.

3. Please list the names of all the unlicensed broadcast stations and the number of times
enforcement action has been carried against each of them, clearly showing the method of
enforcement used (ie: studio raid, main transmitter removal, mobile telephones
disconnected, website domain name blocking etc).

Year/Station:

2007 - D&B RF88.1
2007 - Fresh FM
2007 - Peoples
2008 - Fresh FM
2008 - D&B RF88.1
2009 - Fresh FM
2009 - D&B RF88.1
2009 - Frontline
2009 - Vibez
2010 - Big Vibes
2010 - D&B RF88.1
2010 - Frontline
2010 - Fresh FM
2011 - Radio Vibe
2011 - Vibez
2011 - RF90.4
2011 - Fresh FM
2011 - Frontline

4. How many enforcement visits have been as a result from information supplied from
members of the public or licence paying broadcasters.

Reports/complaints from the public can determine the level of action that Ofcom takes.
Although we cannot directly attribute each single report to an enforcement operation
we can report the following number of complaints (against stations mentioned above) in
West Yorkshire, were received as under:-

2007 - 15
2008 - 19
2009 - 12
2010 - 8
2011 - 4

5. Please supply a breakdown of costs for each case of enforcement action carried out.

This information is not readily accessible as a considerable amount of time would be
needed to locate, retrieve, identify and extract any relevant information. Section 12 of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides that a public authority is not obliged to
comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. The appropriate limit is
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004, and is, for Ofcom, £450. That sum is intended to cover the
estimated costs involved in determining whether Ofcom holds the information
requested, identifying, locating, retrieving and extracting the information from any
document containing it. The Regulations provide that costs are to be estimated at a
rate of £25 per person per hour.

Ofcom estimates that it would take at least 18 hours to identify, locate and extract the
information you require for this question and as such the cost of complying with your
request will exceed the appropriate limit. We will therefore not be able to provide any
information in connection with question 5 of your request.

6. Please give details of any complaints or allegations made against Ofcom's staff in the
enforcement section.

N/A

7. Out of the unlicensed broadcast stations identified, if any have not had enforcement action
against them please supply information as to why it hasn't taken place.

N/A

8. How many reports of interference to safety of life services or aviation have been reported
in West Yorkshire between the dates stated above, if any please state which authority
reported it and if the interference was proven to be attributed to pirate radio?

None

Full pdf link: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binari ... 145773.pdf