§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what is the percentage increase in the price to domestic and commercial consumers of the services of (i) British Airways and (ii) British Telecom for each year since their privatisation.
§ Mr. ButcherBritish Telecom's licence provides for a system of control of annual price changes on certain basic network services (that is, business and residential line rentals and directly dialled inland calls) which together make up a basket. The aggregate level of prices of services within the basket cannot be increased by more than RPI-3 percentage points (where RPI is the general rate of inflation as measured by the retail prices index). Table 1 in the Director General of Telecommunications' consultative document of January 1988, "The Regulation of British Telecom's Prices," a copy of which is in the Library, provides a summary of price changes controlled by the licence since privatisation. Not all of British Telecom's services are covered by the basket.
Questions concerning British Airways should be addressed to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport. I understand that the British Airways annual report gives information on the yields on scheduled services.