Hodgson was appointed Chairman of Ofcom for three years from April 2014, but the one-year extension will ensure that she remains as chairman to oversee the conclusions of Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Digital Communications. The aim of the review is to make sure digital communications markets continue to work for consumers and businesses.
She will also oversee the integration of Ofcom’s new regulatory duties for the BBC, with the regulator set to take on broader regulation of the BBC next year.
Hodgson was appointed in July 2015 as Member of the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information. She replaced previous Ofcom chairman Colette Bowe when Bowe stepped down at the end of March 2014 after serving her full term.
Appointed as a member of the Ofcom Board in July 2011, Hodgson became deputy chairman in January 2012, and is also chairman of Ofcom’s Nominations Committee and a member of Ofcom’s Remuneration Committee and Risk and Audit Committee.
In Government, Hodgson will be working alongside Matt Hancock MP, who was appointed to the role of minister of state responsible for digital policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 15 July, replacing Ed Vaizey. Hancock was elected Conservative MP for West Suffolk on 6 May 2010.
Vaizey was responsibile for digital industries from July 2014 and served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from May 2010 until July 2014. He was elected as the MP for Wantage in 2005.
