HC Deb 15 March 1971 vol 813 cc895-6
11 and 12. Mr. Tilney

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (1) if he will give a general direction to the Post Office to provide facilities to police forces for the interception of nuisance calls of a threatening or obscene kind of which subscribers have complained;

(2) how many complaints have been received by the Post Office of nuisance calls, many of which are of a threatening nr obscene nature, being made to sub- scribers; and how many prosecutions have resulted.

Mr. Chataway

These are matters for the Post Office as managers of the service, and I understand that its procedures already provide for full co-operation with the police.

Mr. Tilney

Is my right hon. Friend aware that some of my constituents—to my knowledge, this applies to constituents of other hon. Members as well—have in the last year received hundreds of obscene or nuisance telephone calls? In this technological age, is it not possible for the subscriber to rent an apparatus by which the police or the Post Office may be alerted that such a call is being made so that the initiator of the call can be traced to the source?

Mr. Chataway

That would be a matter for the Post Office, and I am sure that it will take note of what my hon. Friend says.

Mr. Leslie Huckfield

While recognising that there is some general public concern about this, would not the Minister accept that far too much telephone tapping is done already, and will he give the House an indication of the number of police interceptions of telephone calls made in this country last year?

Mr. Chataway

That is an entirely separate question.