§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will give a breakdown for each region of the numbers of reports received by his Department of abuses of citizens band radio regulations, the number of such complaints which were investigated by his Department, the number of cases in which prosecutions were brought and the number of convictions which were achieved in each of the years since citizens radio was introduced.
§ Mr. PattieThe Radio Investigation Service, which enforces the Wireless Telegraphy Acts, transferred from British Telecom to my Department in August 1984 and has since gone through a period of integration. Information on the number of complaints, investigations and prosecutions by RIS districts was not held centrally prior to 1 April 1986 and could now be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The number of persons prosecuted and convicted for offences related to citizens band radio for the years following the introduction of the FM CB service into the United Kingdom on 2 November 1981, was as follows:
Persons prosecuted Persons convicted Use of AM CB equipment FM CB related offence Use of AM CB equipment FM CB related offence 1982 2,310 25 2,274 25 1983 1,404 66 1,379 66 1984 949 221 940 220 1985 473 467 471 461