Internal review response;-


Freedom of Information Internal Review Decision
 


Internal Reviewer          Simon Pickard, Information and Compliance Manager

  Reference      IR200700**** (RFI20070*****)


Date:   23 November 2007


Original Request:  ‘As the BBC is a prolific abuser of the 0870 telephone numbers, I wish to know under the Freedom of Information Act 2005:- 

1. What they intend to do when revenue sharing ends on these numbers in February 2008, i.e. are you going to continue to use these numbers so that the licence fee payers will then only be paying a normal call charge.

2. Are you going to revert to the geographical 01/02 numbers

3. Or are you going to use an 03 number that COI & CAP state that Government bodies should use.’


Issues on review:    The requester is not satisfied that the BBC responded stating that it was still in the process of assessing the options available with respect to Ofcoms changes to 0870 telephone numbers, and therefore did not currently hold the information that the requester sought.



Findings

This internal review was conducted to ascertain whether the BBC was correct in stating that the information requested was not held (at the date of the initial request) and to ensure that adequate measures were taken to reach this conclusion.

Having looked at the internal correspondence surrounding this request it is clear that at the time of the original request the BBC had not finalised its decisions regarding the use of ‘premium rate’ telephone numbers. At the time of the original request, the BBC was still in negotiations with both Siemens and Cable & Wireless, both of which provide the telephone technology used by the BBC. Individuals from the BBC’s Marketing, Communication & Audiences Division and Siemens were involved in providing information for the response to the original request.

The BBC’s response dated 2 November 2007 stated ‘that when the BBC has assessed the options available to it that any changes will be made publicly available’. It is my view that it would have been helpful to the requester if the original response could have given some indication as to when a decision regarding any changes might be made (if possible) and also where such information would be made publicly available.

The BBC is not a ‘Government body’ governed by the Central Office of Information (COI).

As a final point, it is worth noting that at the date of this internal review, the BBC has still yet to finalise its decisions regarding the use of 03 telephone numbers. I understand that a paper with recommendations is to be presented to the BBC in December for approval.

Conclusion

I uphold the original findings that the BBC did not hold the information requested at the date
of the original request.




So as "The BBC is not a ‘Government body’ governed by the Central Office of Information (COI)." it looks like they will take no notice of the COI !

Only slightly off message but I as listening to Radio 2 this morning at about 8.15 when the presenter was telling listeners about free tickets to a recording.  He gave the 0870 number for the ticket office with the cost of up to 8ppm from a BT landline then added"well so they're not really free [tickets] then, are they?" before giving the web addess and suggesting that might be a better way of requesting tickets!!!  The message must be getting through somewhere!

Just checked the Radio 1 contact us page - yet another 03700 number! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/help/contactus/

Watching BBC TV this morning they showed a contact number on the screen.   It was ........

08707 .........

So some 0870 numbers have NOT been changed to 03...

We have been in touch with BBC TV Breakfast and they have assured us that this 0870 number will be converted to 03 in a later batch.

It appears that the BBC are quietly converting batches of 0870 numbers over to 03 and do not intend to make any public announcement about their moves until they are completed.   Being reasonable people, as we are, we can understand that this sort of move will take some organisation and therefore some time, and are inclined to patiently await the outcome and to support and encourage the BBC in taking this action.

Sadly, we will still have to be critical and "damn the BBC with feint praise" (as NGMsGhost said) due to their "total illogicality" of continuing to use 0845 and 0871 numbers.    What we want to know is when are the BBC going to replace their 0845 and 0871 numbers with 03????

You will see here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/southerncounties/content/articles/2006/03/31/lr_get_in_touc...  that BBC Southern Counties Radio are still using an 0845 number but at the bottom of the page their switch boards have geographical numbers.

irrelevant wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2008 at 11:45pm:


Of course, they can actually cost a lot more than that, from my mobile for example.