A few interesting announcements in the Budget from the Chancellor.

Firstly on spectrum…

• “We will publish plans for the sale and release of public spectrum.” (I suspect this follows on from the recommendations made by the recently published Independent Review of Public Sector Spectrum Holdings)

Secondly on Europe’s approach to regulation…

• “In the last budget I announced that Britain would pioneer risk based regulation. And today the government publishes our new code based on a legal requirement for inspection only where there is risk.

• But risk based regulation will work best if it is applied not just here, but in the European union too. And we are asking the European council tomorrow to adopt the same risk based approach in the interests of Europe�s global competitiveness.”

Thirdly, in regard to the use of technology for the delivery of public services…

• “Sir David Varney, Chairman of HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) and former CEO of O2, will advise the Chancellor on the opportunities for transforming the delivery of public services and the review will look at ways of exploiting the full potential of electronic service delivery.”