§ Mr. Nealeasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received from small telecommunications companies about commercial confidentiality and the use of delegated test houses for the 15W testing and approval of equipment designed to be connected to the telephone network; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ButcherA number of companies, of various sizes, have expressed concern. The need for confidentiality is one that I and the approvals testing laboratories fully recognise. Most concern is expressed about the confidentiality of test work undertaken by British Telecom because of its position as a major supplier of terminal apparatus. Condition 41 of British Telecom's licence under section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1984, which was laid before the House on 26 June, requires BT to separate its approvals testing arrangements from its commercial activities. The condition also prohibits the disclosure of information obtained by BT in the course of approvals testing either to BT's employees outside the testing organisation or to any other person not entitled to receive that information.
§ Mr. Nealeasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the current resources and testing facilities of the British Standards Institute, the British Approvals Board of Telecommunications and British Telecom are adequate to deal with the approval of telecommunications equipment currently submitted by private sector suppliers.
§ Mr. ButcherThere is evidence that the resources available may not now be sufficient to cope with the current demand for apparatus testing, though the stage has not yet been reached where the demand is certain enough to encourage private investment in new facilities. But the revised approval procedures that I announced on 9 April 1984, at column 9, are designed to help companies market new products more quickly by reducing the amount of testing required before approval is given. In addition, work continues both to expand and to improve the efficiency of the existing testing facilities. BT has recently increased its facilities substantially, enabling my Department to select more key telephone systems for testing than would otherwise have been the case.