Part 1: Written Questions for Answer on
Wednesday 2 November 2005

Questions to Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer

1 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24461)  

Questions to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

22  Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by her Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24468)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence

37 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24457)

Questions to the Deputy Prime Minister

48  Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24462)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

86  Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if she will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by her Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24466)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

123 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by her Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24464)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

160 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24460)  

Questions to the Secretary of State for Health

172 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if she will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by her Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24465)

Questions to the Secretary of State for the Home Department

221  Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24456)

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development

249 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24463)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

271 Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham): To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. (24458)

...continued

I raised the issue of 0870 with Vince Cable at the time of the London Bombing.

I was suposed to be going to a dinner tomorrow where he was speaking, but which I can't now attend (daughters birthday party). Having seen this posting I have emailed him for any feedback.

At the risk of sounding ignorant at parliamentary procedure, is this merely a matter of sending a letter off to the local MP with a list of your PQs?  It would be interesting to compare the usage of 0870 numbers amongst GB civil service departments with those of NI.  I've started to see their usage creep over here and can't see the point, as all of NI is on the single 028 area code anyway.

Order Book Part 2

Notices given on Monday 7 November

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79
Andrew Rosindell (Romford): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how the money that is raised from his Department's 0870 prefix contact telephone number is spent. (27131) 
>>

Comment - increased awareness by MPs of the NTS scam can only be beneficial.

11 Nov 2005 : Column 836W—continued

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
0870 Numbers
Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the occasions in the last five years on which 0870 telephone numbers have been used by his Department as contact numbers for members of the public; and how much revenue was received from the use of 0870 contact numbers in each of the last five years for which records are available. [24462]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Over the last five years, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has not used any 0870 telephone numbers as contact numbers for members of the public.

idb wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2005 at 1:26am:

How noble of DFES! So does it receive 'services' in kind from its telco?

So all this extra public expense goes into the back pocket of a private telco!

The general reply coming back seems to be that the 'Department' (whichever department it may be) does not profit out of 0870.

There are 2 logical conclusions to this:

a) They are receiving services in exchange, in which case these are misleading replies as they are profit sharing but receiving services instead of cash.

b) The civil servant who authorised the use of the 0870 number is incompetent and wasting tax payers money as anyone with any gumption can get a profit sharing deal on 0870 numbers (the ads are there to see). The consequence of this is that the caller is paying a premium all of which is going to the telecom company who would have been only too keen to have shared it with the Government department who could then have reduced their admin budget and our taxes.

My inclination (and hope that Government departments aren't that incompetent) is that the correct option is (a). In which case the parliamentary replies are very misleading.

Part 1: Written Questions for Answer on
Wednesday 14 December 2005

Order Book Part 1

Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence

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Andrew Rosindell (Romford):To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10th November 2005, Official Report, column 705W, on departmental telephone lines, if he will list the organisations which hold the records on 0870 numbers used by his Department and the revenue received from them
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