§ Mr. Kenneth Bakerasked the Postmaster-General whether he will provide a breakdown of the profitability of the telegram service according to the types of traffic.
§ Mr. StonehouseInformation about the profitability of inland telegrams in the form asked for is not available. However, since revenue increases with message length, longer messages tend to be less unprofitable. Messages between large centres of population where the cost of hand delivery is lower, are also less unprofitable and in some cases may even show a small profit.
322WThe cost of hand delivery is almost half the total handling costs and accounts for about 85 per cent. of the revenue.
§ Mr. Kenneth Bakerasked the Postmaster-General what new investment there has been in telegram equipment in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. StonehouseInvestment in telegraph equipment during the last ten years was as follows:
Total Year £'000 1958–59 1,593 1959–60 2,810 1960–61 1,569 1961–62 2,485 1962–63 2,897 1963–64 3,508 1964–65 3,504 1965–66 4,248 1966–67 4,577 1967–68 5,019 Separate figures for investment for equipment for the public telegram service are not available.