§ Sir C. Osborneasked the Postmaster-General, in view of the fact that the Immingham telephone lines to Grimsby-Cleethorpes are usually overloaded during normal working hours, and the South Humberside industrial firms use vast quantities of highly flammable and toxic materials, if he will change the prefix number 9 to another, and so make the emergency call 999 more readily available in case of explosion or fires in these industrial installations; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Joseph SlaterTo reserve some of the lines for emergency calls in the manner suggested would have caused more overloading of the lines remaining for ordinary calls and I could not adopt the suggestion. However, more lines are now being added so that the overloading will be removed during the next few weeks.