§ Mr. JannerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) if he will consider ensuring the Office of Telecommunications takes action against owners of private payphones who charge unreasonably high multiples of the standard rate of a telephone call and fail to display a statement of pricing at the phones; [24970]
(2) if he will ask Oftel to ensure that offenders who have operated payphones with illegally high charges either return their illegal earnings of pay or offer them to local charities; [24969]
(3) if he will investigate the level of monitoring by Oftel of the pricing practices of operators of private payphones in public houses, garages, clubs, supermarkets and shops. [24971]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorProvision of private payphones has been liberalised so as to encourage their installation, and with great success—an estimated 500,000 payphones are now in place, giving wider access to public telephony than would otherwise be the case. Tariffs of private payphones have never been regulated, but they are required to be displayed. The question of whether Oftel should investigate "illegally high" charges, or pricing practices generally, therefore does not arise. Enforcement of the requirement to display tariffs is a matter for Oftel, which pursues those cases brought to its attention. Oftel is also discussing with representatives of trading standards officers how compliance with this requirement might be improved.