§ LORD MACPHERSON OF DRUMOCHTERMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in the United Kingdom are at present on the waiting list to have a telephone installed, and how many people approximately have been waiting for a telephone for more than one year.]
791§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, at April 30, 1958, there were 167,864 orders outstanding for telephone service; of these, about 80,000 were under inquiry or in course of being met. I regret that the number of applicants who have been waiting for more than one year is not readily available. Much detailed work, which I do not think would be justified, would be necessary to obtain this figure. During the past twelve months, 334,000 telephones have been connected.
§ LORD MACPHERSON OF DRUMOCHTERMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his reply, and view of the fact that for as long as most of your Lordships can remember this country has always been short of telephones, under successive Governments, may I ask him whether he can give an assurance that it is not the settled policy of the Post Office to keep people short of telephones?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, I am only too happy to assure the noble Lord that the policy of the Post Office is nothing of the kind.
§ LORD MACPHERSON OF DRUMOCHTERMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord further why the Post Office cannot so organise its business, like the electric light and gas companies, that it can sell a telephone to everyone who wants one, even on hire purchase or deferred payment terms? Surely the noble Lord will admit that to-day a telephone is a "must" in every household.
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, whether a telephone is a "must" is a matter of opinion. All I can say is that it is the policy of the Post Office to keep people waiting for the minimum possible time and to provide them with telephones wherever they want them. In all fairness. I must add that the noble Lord's analogy of the speed with which one can get electricity installed, and so on, is scarcely a very hopeful one.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I should like to know something about the 167,000 outstanding applicants. Have they been waiting for a longer period than many of those of the 330,000 who have already been given telephones?
§ LORD CHESHAMMy Lords, some people, in very remote places, where it 792 might require miles and miles of wire and not dozens or scores but hundreds of poles to provide one telephone, have been waiting for some time. The only figure I can give the noble Viscount to-day is that at the same date the number of people who had been waiting for more than three years was 12,000.