§ Mr. Shersbyasked the Secretary of State for Industry whether, in view of the fact that main contractors of telecommunication equipment which are suppliers of large PABXs, over 100 lines, will be permitted to be the maintainers from 1 July 1983, he can state when the relevant rules will be published; and whether customers will have freedom of choice with regard to maintenance from the liberalisation date, no matter when the equipment was installed and connected to the public services telephone network.
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§ Mr. Butcher[pursuant to his reply, 21 January 1983, c. 249–50]: No decision has yet been taken regarding which maintainers may be approved to maintain stored programme controlled digital PABXs. My hon. Friend the Minister for Industry and Information Technology announced on 31 March 1981 that spc digital PABXs could be maintained by approved private maintainers from the date of general liberalisation of PABXs provided that the PABX was installed after that date. That remains the position; I will shortly be making a statement to set a definite date for the beginning of the private maintenance of spc digital PABXs and to specify more precisely the meaning of "installed after that date".
The British Standards Institution is preparing a scheme for the registration of maintainers of spc digital PABXs. This scheme will be based on the relevant requirements of British standard 5750, and full details will be published as soon as the scheme is finalised. Representatives of manufacturing industry are taking a full part in this work. The institution is working to a timetable that should permit existing PABX suppliers to have obtained registration under the scheme by the time that private maintenance is first permitted. Should this target timetable not be achieved, interim arrangements will be made to ensure that the existing suppliers of spc digital PABXs can be approved as maintenance contractors with effect from the date of liberalisation of maintenance.