Telemessage Service (Hansard, 25 January 1983)

§ Baroness Lane-Fox
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, British Telecom regard the telemessage service as competing with private priority mail services, and therefore information about the service is commercially sensitive. However, I can say that since the ending of the inland telegram service on 1st October 1982 the volume of telemessages sent has doubled and is rising rapidly.

§ Baroness Lane-Fox
My Lords, while thanking my noble friend for his reply, can he say to what extent telemessages are proving a substitute for the telegram both for commerce and for hatch, match and dispatch requirements? Further, may I ask whether the existence of the service could be better publicised, including, for instance, the 24-hours guaranteed delivery of the message, which compares favourably with the rather different condition in the present postal service, even if it has recently improved?

§ Lord Glenarthur
Yes, my Lords, telemessages are proving to be an adequate substitute for the telegram, and I think the increase in their use which I have described reflects this. British Telecom have not assessed the contents of messages or class of sender. However, at present special greetings cards account for 25 per cent. of telemessages sent. The indications are that business messages have been increasing more rapidly than social messages.
As to the second part of the noble Baroness's supplementary question, I can confirm (if this was the assurance she was seeking) that British Telecom will refund the cost if delivery does not take place on the next working day. Although British Telecom have taken some fairly substantial steps to advertise and promote the activity, if it is felt that insufficient advertisement has taken place I am sure the chairman will take note of what the noble Baroness has said.

§ Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
My Lords, when the noble Lord informs your Lordships that the number of telemessages has doubled, what has doubled—the number of overnight telegrams, or the number of telegrams which arrive on the same day? What figure has doubled?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, I am not able to give a figure because I am afraid British Telecom regard that 124 matter as commercially sensitive, there being competition with priority mail services. However, the volume of messages sent since October 1982 has doubled, and is rising.

§ Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
My Lords, does the noble Lord mean that all types of messages have doubled?

§ Lord Glenarthur
Telemessages, my Lords.

§ The Earl of Lauderdale
My Lords, does the noble Lord mean that the number of telemessages has doubled since they were introduced, which was nought? They have doubled from what figure?

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, from the figure of the number of telemessages sent in October 1982.

§ Lord Hale
My Lords, would the noble Lord suggest that this would be a convenient time to take the opportunity to look at the services that the old Post Office used to render in its finest past? I used to rejoice in a service called the night telegraph letter which enabled me to wire my London agents at the end of a day's business and to have the message delivered to them in the morning to enable them to carry on with the London agency work. There were many other beneficial services which have now gone and which really could be looked at and the opportunity taken to revive them.

§ Lord Glenarthur
My Lords, the telegram service which British Telecommunications ran was losing a colossal amount of money, and that is why the Government took a keen interest in it and decided to help encourage British Telecom to produce a slightly more worthwhile and slightly more financially rewarding form of message. I quite agree that there are, of course, losses as a result, but the noble Lord might like to know that he can arrange for his telemessage to be sent up to eight o'clock in the evening and it will be delivered by first-class mail the next day. If it is not, his money will be refunded.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, is the defence of "commercially sensitive" going to be used by the Government on every possible occasion—on economic policy, on the state of the pound and on other matters?

§ Lord Glenarthur
Of course, my Lords, this is not a matter for the Government but for British Telecom. I am afraid I cannot provide the figures for which the noble Lord asked earlier.