§ 25. Mr. Barnesasked the Postmaster-General what percentage reduction in directory inquiries he expects to achieve by the proposed restructure of the London telephone directory system.
§ 53. Mr. Goodhartasked the Postmaster-General what estimate he has made of the number of extra staff needed for directory inquiries when the London telephone directory is reorganised.
§ Mr. MasonForty per cent, of directory inquiries in London are for numbers in the directories held by callers. A similar proportion is for a particular group of 5,000 numbers. The new structure should reduce both of these significantly and, by containing the growth in inquiries, minimise the additional staff otherwise required to meet the rapid expansion of the system.
§ Mr. BarnesIs the Postmaster-General aware that the claim that directory inquiries will be reduced by this proposal is the hardest thing of all to believe? Can my right hon. Friend give an assurance that he has no intention whatever of imposing charges for simple directory inquiry calls where adequate information is given?
§ Mr. MasonOn the latter point, yes, Sir. On the first point, I should inform my hon. Friend that there are 40 million directory inquiries in London every year and 16 million come from people who have the information already in their books, but the books are voluminous and thick and people are very hesitant to use them. On an analysis we have found that if we provided them with custom-made directories with this information they would use the books rather than directory inquiries.