Quote:Richards has already tried to leave Ofcom once before, applying for the role of director-general of the BBC back in 2012, but he lost out to George Entwistle. At the time, folks questioned his ability to stay on as chief at an independent regulator overseeing the very corporation that rejected him, but he weathered the storm.

Richards will continue to be employed by and available to Ofcom for a full 12 months of notice from now, giving him a further year’s salary, but there will be no golden parachute from the regulator. The ex-chief is barred from making any job enquiries before he leaves so as to avoid conflicts of interest and will have to run future employment options past Ofcom chair Patricia Hodgson for a few months after he goes.

Meanwhile, the board has already started the process of finding a replacement for Richards, who will continue to run things until the end of the year. The directors are hoping to have found a new chief by early in 2015.

The public post has to be advertised nationally and candidates have to pass muster with the board, an independent assessor and the Culture Secretary Sajid Javid before they can take on the role.

(02-04-2010 19:41 )mikedafc Wrote:  I don't think the channels know where they stand with Ofcom as some of the time they are getting naked for a while then becoming very safe with them only being topless. I think Ofcom need to sit down with the owners of these channels and set up between them exactly what is acceptable on free to air/view channels so that is all down in black and white and so the grey areas that currently seem to exist in the rules which allows channels to push the boundaries to see what they can get away with are removed.

Quote:The announcement comes as Richards' partner, Delyth Evans, steps up her campaign to become a Labour MP at the forthcoming election. A former Welsh Assembly member, Evans stood down as chief executive of the charity Dress for Success earlier this year to become candidate for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire.

Quote:Edward Charles Richards is 45, a graduate of the London School of Economics, and lives in South-West London. He seems to share Ed Miliband’s ambivalence towards marriage, for though he has two children with his long-standing partner Delyth Evans, he has not married her.

Evans, seven years older than Richards, is a well-connected member of the media-political establishment in her own right as a communications consultant. She was a speechwriter for Labour leader John Smith and a Labour member of the Welsh Assembly from 2000 to 2003.

Her business of consulting on media policy must be greatly assisted, one assumes, by sharing a roof with the most important media regulator in the land.