What year 2013 has been!!!

Some of the highlights as I recall them :---

Transport for London abandon their 0843 number and move to 03.

Ofcom very belatedly publish the result of their three and a half years of Consultations on non-geographic phone numbers.   Implementation of the proposals to be by July 2015!

The Department for BIS publish their proposed legislation for implementation of the EU's Consumer Rights Directive which will prohibit the use of higher rate numbers, meaning 084/087, for all post-contract phone based communications by customers from June 2014.

Transport companies are to be covered by the new legislation thanks to Which? --- er, according to Which?

Which? joined the campaign against rip-off phone numbers about September and now claim all this progress is down to them, forgetting the last ten years of campaigning by many others.   Previously Which? Offered their members advice on how to avoid such numbers, by consulting this website for example, but declined to protest on behalf of consumers and failed to contribute to any of Ofcom's Consultations on the matter.

Although the Financial Services Industry is exempt from the EU's CRD, no doubt due to excessive lobbying in Brussels, the FCA has been asked to look at issuing guidelines, or rules, prohibiting rip-off numbers in that industry.

Three of our largest Banks have moved pro-actively to announce they are to abandon rip-off numbers, Barclays, HSBC and RBS, and the RBS subsidiary NatWest has already moved to 03!!!   They did this within 2 weeks of the announcement; truly amazing!!!

On Boxing Day, the Cabinet Office issued their "Guidelines" to Government Departments and Agencies about NOT using rip-off phone numbers.   They wouldn't have been trying to keep it quiet would they?   Hoping to hide it behind other news-- it didn't work. 

There may be other landmark events I have omitted; please add to the list.

One could say this has been a momentous year with far more progress in our battle then we have seen in any previous year.

I wish to place on record my appreciation of all the hard work so many campaigners have put in over the years, it is finally beginning to pay off.   I was thinking of creating a roll of honour and naming those who have contributed so much but I fear I will leave out too many worthy people, so suffice to say congratulations to you all, you know who you are.

Who could have envisaged such moves at the beginning of this year?  To borrow a well known quote, “this may not be the end, it may not be the beginning of the end, but it might be the end of the beginning.

There is still much to do and we must remain vigilant.

A Happy and Successful New Year to all.   :) :)

HMRC moved all of their 0845 and 0870 lines to new 0300 and 0345 numbers in the spring and summer of 2013. They still have work to do in informing people about the number change.

The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee did great work in focussing minds within government. Subsequently, PAC has also savaged the chief executive of the Student Loans Company over their continuing use of 0845 numbers when he appeared at a separate, more recent, enquiry.

BIS published their proposed legislation in August and the real legislation in December. It should pop out of the other end of the parliamentary process on 22 January 2014. A number of organisations are on the brink of announcing their plans. However, many other businesses remain completely unaware of their forthcoming obligations.

NHS England wrote to all non-compliant practices in November asking them to explain their plans for "swiftly moving away from the use of an 084 number." Once the NHS England local area teams have had time to digest the replies and chase those that did not reply, there is hope for decisive action to be taken.

Ofcom published their final plans in December and they remained relatively unscathed given the high level of opposition from the telecoms industry. Ofcom had to make one concession to BT on 0845 and 0870 numbers. However, they did it in such a way that it is both a benefit to consumers and easy to change in the future.

Following the recent Cabinet Office announcement, a flurry of activity within various departments is expected over the next few months. The issue will be raised by our friends in Parliament again and again until the problem is fixed.

Which? continues to demonstrate that they still do not fully understand the issue they are campaigning about.

Having just checked RBS.co.uk it seems they too have moved to 034 numbers..

:) :) :)

Great news for both RBS/Natwest customers.

CJT-80 wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 12:37pm:

Great news for both RBS/Natwest customers.

… and for us all.

There is a tidal wide that will sweep across the public and private sector in 2014, drawing all from 08xx to 03xx numbers.

More work needs to be done to sort out the third (charitable) sector, but the fair telecoms campaign is working on that.

I have no great interest in trying to slice up the cake of credit which must be enjoyed by all who have contributed to campaigning efforts in whatever way.

Indeed, sorry good news for us all  :)

I hope this tidal wave comes soon, as I can feel it will be a positive tidal wave and will have far reaching effects..

the charitable sector needs encouragement to switch over as it maybe costly to them..

The likes of a certain organisation that deals with Citizen's is a prime example of this....

Here's to 2014 and the continued efforts of us all!