Thought this amy be of interest from this page...

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/latest-national-news/FO-aid-for-Britons-stranded....





The FO also launched a special advice line for callers in the UK who were concerned about the well-being of relatives stranded overseas. It is 020 7008 0000.

jgxenite wrote on Apr 18^th, 2010 at 7:36pm:


The FO has always been aware of this issue since it has a Voip based switchboard on which all the individual extensions can be reached using their own 020 numbers.  We commended them some years ago now on this website are their consistency and thoughtfulness in this area.  No doubt they have always been well aware in their professional existence of the very great difficulty facing overseas callers in contacting UK based 084/7 numbers since they inevitably get many calls from overseas.

The Passport Agency on the other hand unfortunately ultimately reports to the Home Office and hence why it has always shown such unpleasant revenue share loving tendencies.  The Home Office have now gone back to an 020 number for their switchboard from their 0870 but only after an exchange of several emails with the Permanent Secretary by myself some years ago as well of course as criticism by many MPs and their constituents.

Dave wrote on Apr 18^th, 2010 at 8:04pm:


No I only remember all the bad publicity that occurred before they changed I'm ashamed to say Dave.  But well done to whichever campaign members had most to do with that one.  I am of course well aware of the change to 03 by the DVLA.

Dave wrote on Apr 18^th, 2010 at 8:46pm:


They may have taught English differently in your day Dave but I really don't think that my English teacher would not have given me any marks for the above sentence.

In any even the Hall of Fame Public Sector list is still rather depressingly small compared to those in the public sector who should have changed but have bloody mindely refused to take any steps at all towards such an action.

You also remind me to re-pursue Surrey Police where they made a variety of attempts at what seemed like quite deliberate initial obfuscation of my enquiry but then their head of FOI finally said in an email that he would send me my requested information of all internal reports that justified their original use of 0845 and its subsequent retention and information on any evaluation they had done of the costs of switching to 03.  Only to then still not send me the information he had faithfully promised me in writing.

I suspect that actually putting a question down for and then turning up at the next meeting of Surrey Police Authority and asking why Surrey Police is still holding out on this information might get rather more results than the seemingly futile attempts to deal by correspondence with their apparently deliberately unhelpful FOI section (of course there are theoretically appeals to the ICO but those are usually frustrating and lengthy too).  Their original ludicrous stock reason for refusing my request was that it would require them to examine all their custody records over the last several years.

jgxenite wrote on Apr 18^th, 2010 at 7:36pm:

Proving - once again - that living in Scotland is good for you, the Scottish Government today announced a Homecoming Helpline for travellers affected by the current travel disruption. It's an 0800 number

Homecoming Helpline
0800 027 0504
From overseas + 44 800 027 0504

Off to feed my pet haggis...

NGMsGhost wrote on Apr 20^th, 2010 at 9:08am:

Is this true - will it be charged as an NGN number and not a geo call?

farci wrote on Apr 20^th, 2010 at 9:44am:

Yes.

For instance www.18185.co.uk charge 0.5p per minute for me to call any normal US area code but 3p per minute to numbers with the 800 area code.

The same often applies in reverse for those calling the UK.

Surely you are also aware farci that most uk mobile phone contracts with inclusive minutes do not allow calls to 0800 numbers to be made out of those inclusive minutes.  Also for instance Vodafone does not extend its Passport deal (calls can be made out of bundled minutes + a 75p connection fee when roaming in the EU) to calls to UK 0800 or 0808 numbers.

Matters are only set to get worse with BT just having appealed to the Competition Tribunal over its right to now charge mobile operators termination fees for carrying calls to 0800 numbers.  I don't know the exact background but I expect BT thinks that if the mobile operators are fleecing their customers for calling 0800 numbers on mobiles that BT ought to also be allowed to fleece them.

See www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/comp_bull_index/comp_bull_ccases/closed_all/cw_01036/