§ Mr. Butcherasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether he is satisfied that the British Standards Institution is able to do the work necessary to pass telecommunications equipment for connection to the public network within the time scale announced by the Minister of State on 16 November.
§ Mr. WakehamThe BSI is responsible only for the preparation of standards with which equipment connected to public circuits must conform. It will not be responsible for the approval of equipment conforming to those standards. The Government are satisfied that there is no 125W practicable alternative to drafting by BSI committees if all interested organisations, includng manufacturers and users, are to participate in the preparation of standards.
My hon. Friend the Minister of State and I have discussed with the BSI ways in which the publication of standards can be speeded up, and I am confident that all possible steps will be taken to complete work on mandatory connection requirements as quickly as is consistent with producing standards which will command the wide measure of respect that is necessary. But ultimately the length of time taken over drafting depends not on the BSI secretariat but on the organisations which sit on the technical committees.
As it is, I expect standards to be available in order to complete the introduction of a competitive supply of attachments by mid-1983, as the Government envisaged when the liberalisation policy was first announced. This is a very demanding timetable when compared with what occurred in the United States, and the Department stands ready to reinforce the arrangements as appropriate to ensure success. The chairman of British Telecom has already made clear that the corporation will help as much as it can within its resources to accelerate the introduction of the new regime for subscriber equipment.