Another hotline, 0300 555 2222, has been setup for England. It is apparently operated from Birmingham, but covers much of the country.

Unfortunately some, not all, publications are reporting that it is a free or "freephone" number. Perhaps this is confusion brought about by the double-zero which may look similar to 0800.

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Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7471372.stm

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[…]

Consumer minister Gareth Thomas told the BBC that central government was investing in teams to tackle illegal money lending and scams, but it was up to local councils to address funding concerns for trading standards departments.

"I would encourage local authorities to look at properly funding trading standards teams," he said.

He would not be drawn on the reasons why nearly half of local authorities had difficulty in recruiting officers.

Loan sharks

Mr Thomas was speaking at the TSI conference in Bournemouth as he launched a new free helpline for people in the North West, Yorkshire, Humberside, South East and Central England to report loan sharks and receive support.

The helpline - 0300 555 2222 - connects people to the government-funded anti-loan shark team, based in Birmingham.

[…]
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SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jul 7^th, 2008 at 12:32am:

Cumbria County Council doesn't say it's "free" on its website.

In addition to the BBC, the only other publication I can find it as being described as free is News & Star and other associated publications.