Thank you Derrick, that's really helpful and lays the whole issue to rest.

What really needs to happen is the public at large needs to understand this by the companies using the 03 number prefix telling us they are helping us by using the new 03 numbers, rather than the phone number paranoia displayed by myself and others which is understandable born out of years of murky call charging posing as a 'local' or 'national' numbers.

It's the sort of thing Jeremy Vine could cover on Radio 2, I'd bet there would be plenty of calls in to the show commenting on past rip off scams listeners had been caught-out on. but more importantly the message would get across in a positive light for the future.