HC Deb 01 August 1984 vol 65 cc406-7W
Mrs. Dunwoody

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to whom the frequencies currently used by ambulances and doctors using radio paging units will be made available once those medical staff have changed from them.

Mr. Butcher

The frequencies at 450–470 MHz currently used for a wide range of fixed point-to-point services, including control of hospital paging and ambulance radio systems, are being replaced by microwave frequencies or by land lines. They will be nade available to meet the urgent need of the power and water industries, amongst others, to introduce automatic monitoring of outstations from central points and for a variety of land mobile services. These have been seriously constrained by the acute shortage of frequencies which they can use. Some paging systems currently operating at 27 MHz may also need to be found alternative frequencies when the United Kingdom adopts the European standard for citizens' band radio, but no decision has yet been taken on relocation.