§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider tapering down from 1s., for the maximum distance, to 3d., for the minimum, the rental charge of 1s. per call imposed last October on operator-controlled telephone boxes.]
§ LORD BOWLESMy Lords, the additional charge for calls connected by the operator from telephone kiosks is a contribution towards the upkeep of the kiosks and to the additional operator time needed to check the insertion of coins and the termination of the call. Kiosk costs are independent of the distance. It would be unfair to expect people making long-distance trunk calls to subsidise those making shorter ones.
§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that Answer, may I ask whether he realises that in the remoter country districts this charge will bear rather hard on the agricultural community, who are, after all, the poorer 266 section of the nation, and that making local calls will be really expensive for them?
§ LORD BOWLESMy Lords, I realise that, but I do not think that there is anything we can do about it, because these kiosks are not only in the countryside, but all over the country; and, unfortunately, they are losing about £2 million a year. The operator is rather an important person in this matter. Let us suppose the noble Lord telephones: he asks her for the number, she gets it, she notes when three minutes are up, and she then asks him if he is going on with his conversation. She is therefore occupied in looking after him.
§ BARONESS HORSBRUGHMy Lords, can the noble Lord say what amount of money has to be spent on these kiosks because of vandals?
§ LORD BOWLESMy Lords, I am afraid that does not arise out of the Question on the Paper.