HC Deb 29 November 1972 vol 847 c135W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what easily available figures he has for vandalism in telephone boxes in October, 1972.

Mr. O'Halloran

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications what has been the cost of vandalism to public telephone kiosks throughout the country to the latest available date in 1972; and how this compares with the same period for the previous year.

Sir J. Eden

The cost of damage due to vandalism is as follows:

Year ended 31st March, 1972 £426,000
Year ended 31st March. 1971 £565,000

Some 47,500 cases of vandalism were recorded during the quarter ended 30th September, 1972. Following changes recently introduced by the Post Office in its arrangements for collecting statistics, this figure includes cases of minor damage which did not affect the working of the telephones some of which were not included in previously quoted vandalism statistics. The number of incidents causing the telephones to be out of service was 23,000 during the September quarter.