§ 11.35 a.m.
VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSSMy Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Harrowby, I beg to ask the Question which stands in his name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government when freedom from timing local telephone calls started; whether the two-thirds short-time user is true of rural areas; and whether, having in mind the steep rises in the charge for the very local calls in recent years and in view of the enormous aggregate figure represented by the one-third of the (to a considerable extent business) longer calls, and the very small compensatory gain of 1d. in three minutes for the short-call user and the fact that the extension of non-timing was one of the chief recommendations of the November, 1957. White Paper, the retrograde ending of this age-old advantage, which should be considered as a parallel form of progress to cheaper calls, will be reconsidered.]
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, Her Majesty's Government do not share the view of the noble Earl that the proposal to time local calls is a retrograde step or that the reduction of 1d. in the present 3d. charge is only a very small compensatory gain. Statistics are not available of the average duration of local calls in rural and other areas separately, or of business and social calls separately. Many might, however, question the assumptions on which the noble Earl's points appear to be based. Of all local calls, 64 per cent. are of less than three minutes duration and it will surely be of solid benefit if the charge for these calls is reduced from 3d. to 2d.
Although the range of the 3d. call was substantially increased following the 872 White Paper of November last, the noble Earl is not correct in suggesting that this was primarily designed to extend the area within which calls were not timed. The great majority of calls previously charged at 6d., 9d. or 1s., and reduced on 1st January last to 3d., were not previously timed. The practice of exempting local calls from timing goes back a long way, and it was extended in 1936 to include calls up to fifteen miles chargeable distance. Nevertheless, Her Majesty's Government are convinced that a change in this practice is right in principle, as being in the interest of telephone users generally, and that the change will be a notable encouragement to the use of the telephone system.
VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSSMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord very much for his full Answer. May I ask, as a supplementary question, whether it would not be possible to keep the time-free call in the area which until the beginning of this year was covered by a 3d. telephone call? Possibly it would not be feasible to extend it to the wider area, but would it not be possible to keep it in at least the limited area where it was in force until the beginning of 1958?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, principally for technical reasons it would not be possible. As your Lordships know, the whole of the new system is designed to integrate in due course with full automation, and to make small differences in certain areas would, I think, be quite impossible.
LORD HAWKEMy Lords, would my noble friend give the maximum of publicity to the fact that local calls are now being timed, because women folk are apt to spend rather a long time on the telephone and they perhaps will not do so if they realise that they are paying for the time?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, I should not like there to be any misapprehension that local calls are now being timed. The introduction of timing of local calls is something for the future. While I have every sympathy with the noble Lord, I think he must fight his own battles.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, what about the exact practice for distinguishing between social and business calls? Can we have some information as to exactly how that is done? Who decides it? If a business man is telephoning about making a luncheon appointment, is that a social call? Who on earth is to judge in these matters?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, the only information that is available—and I fully agree that that cannot be entirely full—is judged from those lines which are on a business tariff and those on a domestic tariff. I suppose it is possible that an occasional social call is made on a business line, and no doubt occasional business calls are made on a domestic line.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHIs it then to be a continuing practice that officials listen in regularly to see whether we are talking about business or social matters? Is that usual? Are we to be subjected to a continuous "tapping"?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, I do not know about "continuing"—I did not know it happened now.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, in any event, did not the question of the noble Lord, Lord Hawke, put a gross libel on the fair sex?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, the noble Viscount will not expect me to answer that question.