§ Mr. Nealeasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether, pursuant to the reply given by the Minister for Industry and Information Technology to the hon. Member for Cornwall, North on 22 March, Official Report, c. 674, he will give further details of the arrangements he has made for the second stage of the liberalisation of value added network services.
§ Mr. WakehamThe Department of Industry is distributing a guide to the licensing arrangements which will apply after 1 April. The guide confirms that applications may be sent to the Department and announces the appointment of an independent panel of advisers to the364W Secretary of State. It also sets out the criteria for eligibility, which state that the proposed value added service should be:
- (a) stored by the value added operator for the purpose of being subsequently retrieved or forwarded;
- (b) processed by the value added operator in such a way that when delivered the messages have been clearly altered as to format, protocol or content.
I am arranging for a copy of the guide to be placed in the House of Commons Library.