Government use of ‘Premium Rate’ phone lines

TYLER’S RADIO FOUR RAMPAGE

North Cornwall MP, Paul Tyler, today (Thursday) stepped up his national campaign to stop Government departments charging citizens over-the-odds for calling their offices.

Interviewed today on the BBC Radio Four programme, You and Yours, Mr Tyler said, ‘Surely we as citizens should have the right to access government services at the lowest possible cost.’

Early this year, the local MP boosted a nationwide campaign started by the Radio Four programme You and Yours to end the use of ‘0870’ numbers.  The lines are advertised as ‘national rate’ yet often cost callers many times more than the charge for a normal national call.

Government Departments have made millions from the lines, through so-called ‘revenue sharing’.  In Parliamentary Answers to Paul Tyler, Ministers have admitted that the DVLA raised £1.1m in the course of one year, along with over £2,600 in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and nearly £102,000 through the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

Ministers have been cagey in releasing the figures:  the Home Office took three months to answer Mr Tyler’s question on revenue.  Only the Department of Trade and Industry seemed to be aware of Central Office of Information advice that the use of 0870 lines acted as an ‘effective barrier’ to those wishing to access information.  Other departments admit to using 0870 numbers but say they receive no revenue from their use.  This means that the profit is going into the hands of a private company.

51 MPs, including 24 Labour Members, have joined Paul Tyler’s campaign by signing EDM 602, calling on the Government to discontinue the use of ALL 0870 numbers for accessing government services.  Only one Conservative MP has supported the campaign.

Commenting after his interview, Mr Tyler said:  “I’m glad that Radio Four, and the Mail on Sunday, among others, have taken up this issue.  It is quite wrong that some of the most vulnerable in society should be charged so much to access vital government services.

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“While the Government remains so slow to act, it is my constituents that are running up huge phone bills.  We’re used to Ministers ignoring the opinions of their own backbenchers but now their ignoring civil service advice too.  Just how arrogant can they get?

“Ministers now seem embarrassed that their departments are gaining revenue from these numbers but as ever have come up with quite the wrong solution.  Just renegotiating contracts so that the revenue goes into the pockets of a contractor doesn’t reduce the cost to the caller.  We don’t want to pay simply to assuage Ministers’ own guilt.”

Paul Tyler has pursued Home Office Ministers for further advice on what they intend to do to end the use of 0870 numbers altogether.  The Minister in charge has promised to ‘reply shortly’.  Paul Tyler commented:  “I’m now very worried that the Home Office will leave my questions unanswered.  After all, a week before an election is due to be called, an answer promising a reply ‘shortly’ means no answer at all.  It won’t do.  The Government must end these charges at the earliest opportunity.”

Paul Tyler’s colleague and North Cornwall Campaign Leader, Dan Rogerson, added:

“It’s only a shame, of course, that the Conservatives are so unconcerned by this.  I can’t believe only one of their MPs has signed Paul Tyler’s motion against these unfair charges.  We are going to keep this campaign going until the Government does the right thing.”

Notes to Editors:

Paul Tyler questioned every Government Department on how many 0870 numbers they used, what services they were used to access, and how much revenue had been gained from their use, at the end of 2004.

The Home Office took longest to respond, finally answering the question on revenue on 2nd March 2005.  The answer did not reach Paul Tyler until he prompted the Department on 10th March 2005.  The answer still hasn’t been placed on public record in Hansard

The full set of questions is available from Paul Tyler’s Commons Office.  Contact Alex Davies on 020 7219 6355.

The text of EDM 602, along with a list of current signatories follows

EDM 602