§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration he has given to increasing the penalties for hoax calls about alleged emergencies which result in expenditure by the emergency services and in those emergency services being temporarily unavailable for genuine emergencies; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Merlyn Rees:The penalties for such offences are kept under regular review and in some instances were increased 560W only last year; but detection is the main difficulty.