House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 18 Feb 2008 (pt 0001)

Telephone Calls: Ofcom

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he expects Ofcom to issue its review of charges of calls made to 0870 numbers; what the reasons are for the time taken to complete the review; and if he will make a statement. [184308]

Malcolm Wicks: I have been asked to reply.

The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

idb wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2008 at 10:43pm:


Whereas the question should have been:-

(a) What is the estimated additional total cost to UK taxpayers of having to call 084 and 087 prefixed customer service numbers operated by his Department compared to his department operating those numbers on conventional 01 and 02 prefixed geographic phone numbers.

and

(b) What steps is his department taking to replace 084 and 087 prefixed numbers with 03 prefixed numbers that will offer all the call handling features to his department of 084 and 087 prefixed numbers without costing UK taxpayers any more to call than numbers commencing 01 and 02.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 22 Feb 2008 (pt 0008)

Departmental Telephone Services

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much revenue was generated by each (a) 0845 and (b) 0870 telephone code used for customer inquiry lines by his Department's agencies in each of the last five years. [183955]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department's two agencies, the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency do not use 0845 or 0870 telephone numbers.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 28 Feb 2008 (pt 0026)

General Practitioners: Telephone Services

Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to replace 0844 numbers with 0800 numbers for patients calling their GPs. [189563]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department is currently gathering evidence on the use of 0844 numbers in general practice and will consider what further action is necessary in light of that evidence.

General Practitioners: Telephones

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines he has issued to primary care trusts on the use of premium rate telephone numbers by GPs for patients calling their surgeries. [190033]

Mr. Bradshaw: General medical services (GMS) contractors were banned from using premium rate numbers (09 or 087) via The National Health Service (Primary Medical Services) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations SI 2005 No. 893. The ban came into force in April 2005.

The ban did not include 084 numbers. However, on the 11 April 2005, the Department wrote to primary care trust chief executives advising them to discourage general practitioner practices from changing from geographically based numbers to ‘084' numbers until after the outcome of the Ofcom consultation was known.

The Department is currently gathering evidence on the use of 0844 numbers in general practice and will consider what further action is necessary in light of that evidence.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 27 Feb 2008 (pt 0004)

Departmental Telephone Services

Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many non-geographic telephone numbers are in use by his Department and its agencies; and what revenue was generated from them in each year for which figures are available. [180896]

Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 7 February 2008]: 11,764 non-geographic telephone numbers are in use by my Department and its agencies.

The Department received a rebate of

£1,463,738.45

for the period covering 1 October 2005 to 30 November 2007 and this was used to pay for other telecommunication services. No information is available for any earlier period and no breakdown of this figure is available. The Department ceased this arrangement on 14 December 2007 and no longer receives any rebate. This change in arrangement does not affect the charge a customer pays for contacting the Department.

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many 0845 or similar cost telephone numbers are used by (a) his Department and (b) related departmental bodies for public access to services. [181602]

Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 28 January 2008]: The information requested is as follows:

(a) 11,749

(b) 94.

idb wrote on Mar 1^st, 2008 at 2:03am:


So now they leave even more money in the hands of their ripoff telco partners.  How does that leave the public any better off?  Me think they are lieing again and the money is being used to offset line rental charges by their telco or some other false accounting ruse to hide the fact that the government is still benefitting from this revenue flow from the public.

The more interesting question is how much money dic the Department's telco partner make from the operation of all of these 0845 numbers over the same period.  I would be prepared to bet that it is at least 10 times the amount given to the government.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 05 Mar 2008 (pt 0027)

Departmental Telephone Services

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which agencies under his Department's responsibilities use the (a) 0845 and (b) 0870 telephone codes for customer enquiries; how many 0845 and 0870 telephone codes each agency uses; and how much revenue was generated for each of these codes by each agency in each of the last five years. [183887]

Mrs. McGuire: None of my Department's agencies use 0870 numbers for customer inquiries. Information on the use of 0845 numbers is in the table:

Agency 0845 numbers in use

Child Support Agency
11,500

Jobcentre Plus
198

The Pension Service
26

Disability and Carers Service
6

In addition, although not formally an agency, the Department's debt management service uses nineteen 0845 numbers.

The high number of lines in the CSA reflects a one time business model which gave each agent a direct dial number that clients could use to contact a specific person. The facility still exists but its use is minimal since the agency adopted an advanced telephony model with an area based single number for clients, which routes calls to the person best equipped to answer the query.

The Department received a rebate of £1,463,738.45 for the period covering 1 October 2005 to 30 November 2007 and this was used to pay for other telecommunication services. No information is available for any earlier period and no breakdown of this figure is available. The Department ceased this arrangement on 14 December 2007 and no longer receives any rebate. This change in arrangement does not affect the charge a customer pays for contacting the Department.