Nothing significant to post as an update yet, but followers of this thread may wish to note this posting.


With great thanks to those who have been posting comprehensive information here whenever relevant isses are raised in debate or written answers, I can offer the following links to recent Hansard entries: 19 May Col 88W, 2 June Col 727W, 3 June Col 872W, 5 June Col 1088W.
(In the latter case, callers running out of money or mobile credit is not given as one of the reasons for calls being abandoned.)

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 16 Jun 2008 (pt 0032)

NHS: Telephone Services

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls were taken by NHS Direct in each month in 2007; and what the average cost to the public purse was of each call in 2007.

Mr. Bradshaw: The information is shown in the following table:

2007 Total number of calls taken

January
682,892

February
602,188

March
619,917

April
635,812

May
678,417

June
669,796

July
690,831

August
662,927

September
632,120

October
687,531

November
707,862

December
724,483

Total(1)
7,994,776

(1) Figures are for all calls to NHS Direct which includes calls to 0845 46 47 and other calls to services provided to national and local commissioners.

The average cost per call in the financial year 2007-08 was £15.35.

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls were made to NHS Direct in (a) 2007 and (b) 2006; what the forecast number of calls for each of those years was before the start of each year; and if he will make a statement. [208426]

Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

Calls made to NHS Direct Actual Forecast

2006-07(1)
8,296,972
9,500,000

2007-08(2)
9,018,148
9,900,000

(1) Figures are provided for the financial years 2006-07 and 2007-08.
(2) Figures are for all calls to NHS Direct which includes calls to 0845 46 47 and other calls to services provided to national and local commissioners.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 23 Jun 2008 (pt 0002)

Child Support Agency: Telephone Services

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he has considered the merits of replacing the 0845 telephone number for the Child Support Agency with a local-rate telephone number. [212073]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen "Mr Clueless" Geraghty, dated 23 June 2008:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has considered the merits of replacing the 0845 telephone number for the Child Support Agency with a local rate telephone number. [212073]

The Child Support Agency's 0845 telephone numbers are charged at the

rate of a local call

from a landline telephone. Calls from mobile phones are charged at a rate determined by the service provider.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Of course we don't Stephen as it's a pile of garbage and you haven't ANSWERED THE QUESTION.

Part 2: Oral and Written Questions from
Wednesday 9 July 2008


15
Mr Mark Prisk (Hertford & Stortford): To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, what income his Department received from the Companies House 0870 number in (a) 2007-08, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2005-06.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 14 July 2008 (pt 0032)

Welfare Tax Credits: Telephone Services

Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tax credits enquiries his Department received through its 0800 and 0845 numbers in each of the last three years. [214296]

Jane Kennedy: HMRC operates two 0845 helplines to deal with tax credits inquiries: the tax credits helpline for the general public and an intermediaries helpline. Advisers working on other HMRC helplines may also receive a small number of tax credits inquiries, but these are incidental to their main work, and the number is not recorded.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the then Paymaster General on 14 March 2006, Official Report, column 2137W, on 20 June 2006, Official Report, column 1857W and on 25 June 2007, Official Report, column 418W, in which the number of calls received by the tax credits helpline in each month in the last three years to April 2007 has been provided. The following table brings this information up to date for 2007-08.

Tax credits helpline

Number of calls received( 1) to the nearest thousand
May 2007
2,510

June 2007
2,664

July 2007
3,149

August 2907
2,129

September 2007
2,025

October 2007
1,703

November 2007
1,563

December 2007
1,039

January 2008
1,830

February 2008
1,600

March 2008
1,445

(1 )Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser


In addition the following table gives details of the number of calls received by the intermediaries helpline in each of the last three years.

Tax credits intermediaries service

Number of calls received to the nearest thousand
2005-06
50

2006-07
59

2007-08
56

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 17 July 2008 (pt 0028)

Departmental Telephone Services

Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many enquiries his Department received through its 0800 and 0845 numbers in each of the last three years. [214295]

Mrs. McGuire: Inquiries to the Department of Work and Pensions through 0800 and 0845 numbers for the last three years are:

DWP contact centres
Total inquiries( 1) to DWP contact centres during normal opening hours
Year (April to March)

2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
0800
2,994,064
1,944,284
1,550,576

0845
21,322,774
22,064,546
22,519,633

(0800 and 0845)(1)
18,950,827
19,920,108
18,905,753

Total
43,267,665
43,928,938
42,975,962

(1) Inquiries, is defined as total calls offered to DWP contact centres during their normal hours of opening. Information is not available in all cases to distinguish between those calls received to 0800 numbers and those to 0845 numbers.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 22 July 2008 (pt 0014)

Departmental Telephone Services

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much revenue her Department received from the 0870 driver inquiry line in the last financial year; and how much it cost her Department to administer the service in that period. [221681]

Jim Fitzpatrick: For the financial year 2007-08 the rebate (revenue) received from the DVLA 0870 driver inquiry line was £687,638.18. The full staff cost (to cover the 177 staff members involved) of administering this particular 0870 service during 2007-08 was £3,389,288.00.