Ofcom has published proposals to renew its co-regulatory arrangements with the ASA for the regulation of advertising on broadcast media, on demand and video sharing platforms

Under the current arrangements, the ASA acts as the frontline regulator and Ofcom provides a statutory backstop. Ofcom says that the longstanding co-regulatory system, which was first established in 2004, has been highly effective and reduces complexity to give consumers a single point of contact for advertising issues across all media.  

Ofcom proposes to renew the co-regulatory arrangements without significant changes for a further ten years.  

The ASA will continue to report details of investigations regularly and this information will be publicly available. The ASA will also continue to provide Ofcom with performance data about its case handling arrangements. 

Ofcom's consultation ends on 19 July 2024 and it will publish its final decision in the autumn.

Although the ASA doesn't get everything right, if it ain't broke don't fix it.  The current arrangements largely work well and it makes sense to continue them.