I was on the Companies House website last night.  I noted that they use a premium rate 0870 telephone number - 0870 33 33 636.

I sent the following e-mail last night to Mr Ian Smith, customer services manager to ask him why.

For the attention of Mr Ian Smith

I was on the Companies House website yesterday And I note your request as to any views we may have regarding your performance, which may help you to improve your levels of service

Please can you therefore tell me why you must use a highly unpopular revenue generating 0870 premium rate number for members of the public/ directors etc to raise queries with Companies House?

Why won't you use conventional geographical numbers commencing with 01 or 02?

You might like to look at the link below deplores the use of 0870 numbers by government departments.  Not all the link may be highlighted which means that you may need to copy the whole link into your browser.


http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=28872%09%09%09%09%09%09%09&; amp; amp;SESSION=875


Look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours Sincerely

I sent an email to companies house re the use of 0870 number and did receive a reply. They gave all the usual reasons for using it and also stated that number was under review. Also states that only receive 1ppm revenue from calls. But Lee  Jones advises that if I object to using 0870 number please call on 02920 380836-result.

So what can't they avertise that as the main number in the first place.  We do we have to have all the excuses?!

JUST RECEIVED A REPLY FROM COMPANIES HOUSE.  THEY STILL BELIEVE THAT 0870 IS NATIONAL RATE!   Atleast they are happt to provide a geographical equivalent - 02920 380836


Ian has asked me to respond to yur query as he's out of the office for a few days.

 I note your concerns over the national number that Companies House uses. It may help if I explain the reasons behind its introduction. Primarily, we introduced the number as a result of a mystery shopping exercise that  we conducted at the end of 1999. We implemented a national number to provide our customers with benefits which include: -

One easy number to remember for all Companies House enquiries-    
One port of call for all general enquiries-        
Experienced staff at hand to answer and deal with customer enquiries-        
Routing the more complex and case related calls to the appropriate departments through one contact point -        
Each call being answered regardless of the volume of calls received  

With regards to the costs of the calls, I should explain that Companies House operates as a Trading Fund and that status requires it to recover all its running costs from the fees it charges for its services.  The cost of each of our services has therefore been carefully calculated and the fee for that service set accordingly.  The 0870 number that is in use charges at a national rate which on average works out at 7.7 p minute per minute; the cost of calls from mobile phones will differ depending on the Network. In line with it's Trading Fund status, as explained above, Companies House receives less that 1p per minute on all calls received on the 0870 number which is then offset against the costs of providing the call centre for our customers. In this way Companies House call centre is not in any way funded by the taxpayer but by the people who use its services.  However I can confirm that we are currently reviewing the use of the 0870 number following a report published by OFCOM, the independent regulator for the UK communications industries, on the use of 0870 numbers.  If you do not wish to use the 0870 number, but would like to contact me directly on 02920 380836, I will be pleased to try and answer any queries you may have on any Companies House matter.

RegardsLee Jones  

Alternative wrote on Jan 26^th, 2007 at 12:18pm:

JUST RECEIVED A REPLY FROM COMPANIES HOUSE.  THEY STILL BELIEVE THAT 0870 IS NATIONAL RATE!   Atleast they are happt to provide a geographical equivalent - 02920 380836 In line with it's Trading Fund status, as explained above, Companies House receives less that 1p per minute on all calls received on the 0870 number which is then offset against the costs of providing the call centre for our customers.

Can't say as I'm too impressed with whoever negotiated that 'less than 1p per minute' deal - it appears they got ripped off big time too!

Heinz wrote on Jan 26^th, 2007 at 2:43pm:

Can't say as I'm too impressed with whoever negotiated that 'less than 1p per minute' deal - it appears they got ripped off big time too!

Perhaps they also got a free switchboard and telephones and free line rental too but have neglected to mention all those benefits in kind.  An FOI would  no doubt be illuminating in this respect if one asked about offsets and freebies as well as revenue share from their telecoms provider.

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 26^th, 2007 at 6:49pm:

An FOI would  no doubt be illuminating in this respect if one asked about offsets and freebies as well as revenue share from their telecoms provider.

Is that an offer NGM, or should I send one through???

trubster wrote on Feb 16^th, 2007 at 1:31am:

Is that an offer NGM, or should I send one through???

I  thought you were going to send one through trubster?