§ 2.46 p.m.
§ Lord Young of DartingtonMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ask Oftel, in the discharge of its duty to safeguard the interests of British Telecom consumers, to suspend its supercall service until the present defects in it are remedied.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Lucas of Chilworth)My Lords, it is for the Director General of Telecommunications to decide whether he needs, or is empowered, to take any particular action to safeguard the interests of British Telecom consumers. I understand that he has recently drawn attention to the high cost of some telephone services, such as supercall, and expressed concern that the public may not be fully aware of these costs; and that he intends to take the matter up with British Telecom.
§ Lord Young of DartingtonMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord the Minister for that reply. May I ask him whether he is aware that there is a great deal of disquiet in the country? First, there is the fact that in its new premium phone-in services the privatised British Telecom is profiting from, among other things, a wide range of pornographic phone-in call-up-a-girl services, which are ever more widely advertised in pornographic magazines? Secondly, is the Minister aware that the new phone-in services are advertised at what are called M rates? Is he aware, further, that people do not understand that M rates, which are the charge rates for these new phone-in services, mean that quite local calls are charged at the same rate as calls to the Republic of Ireland, of all places, which is 10 times the rate of a local call and which is chosen by British Telecom only because it is the most expensive rate it has? Does the noble Lord not think—
§ Lord Young of Dartington—that British Telecom should come clean about the rates which are being charged?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, so far as the noble Lord's first supplementary question is concerned, I can tell him that there was a meeting between the Office of Fair Trading, British Telecom and my honourable friend the Minister responsible in the Department of Trade for the regulation of telephone services to deal with offensive telephone services, which I think embraces the one that the noble Lord mentioned. On 27th June, British Telecom issued a press notice saying that it was setting up a meeting with providers of these services so that a code of practice, so far as content was concerned, could be determined. As regards the noble Lord's second question about the M rate of 40p per minute, which is charged in eight second slots, the Director General of Oftel has, in his press release of 25th June, said that he intends taking up this question with British Telecom, so that the charges are better understood and realised by the users of the telephone services.
Lord Wallace of CoslanyMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that I am completely innocent about call girls, etc? Will he kindly explain to innocent people like myself what is a supercall?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, a supercall is one of a number of premium products of British Telecom. For example, there is a direct line for one's fortune to be told, there is a direct line for City news, and so on. These are not regulated in terms of price; a free market obtains.
§ Lord GrimondMy Lords, would it not be better if British Telecom concentrated on giving us an efficient and cheap ordinary telephone service instead of going in for all these frills and pornographic ongoings?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I should not like the House to believe that British Telecom's premium product service is concerned only with pornography. A number of users require additional 586 information services, such as the City line. Basic services are regulated by the licence issued to British Telecom. All the charges are regulated to a formula of retail price index minus 3 per cent., and in real terms the basic costs have been reduced.
§ Lord MishconMy Lords, does the noble Lord remember that when dealing with a certain type of service, to which the noble Lord, Lord Young of Dartington, drew attention, he used the word "embraces"? Would he care to correct the Hansard record in order to save his face?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I shall certainly check the Hansard record, but as your Lordships know, Hansard does in fact print verbatim what we say. It is very difficult to get Hansard to alter anything at all.
§ Lord KennetMy Lords, will the Government now put this matter in the balance with what has happened to the Royal Ordnance factories and what apparently is going to happen to British Airways and have a good think about going any further with privatisation?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, the privatisation of British Telecom has been a great success. The company is profitable, the workpeople are largely shareholders, and the general public have benefited from it. It is an example of what this Government are intending to do to other businesses in the public sector for the benefit of the workpeople, the nation at large and the public.