§ Mr. MichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the value to crime prevention generally of the use of telephone equipment which displays the caller's number on the recipient's phone.
§ Mr. John Patten[holding answer 31 January 1990]; None. We are aware, however, of newspaper reports claiming success for equipment of this kind operated by Bell Telephone Incorporated of New Jersey, United States. We also understand that research of this system is to be published in the near future in the United States and we shall study it with interest.
§ Mr. MichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has about the effect on the number of obscene phone calls made in America of the introduction of telephone equipment which identified the caller's number; and whether there are any implications for the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. John Patten[holding answer 31 January 1990]: We understand that a report will be published shortly by the school of criminal justice at the State University of New Jersey assessing the effect of introduction of telephone equipment which identifies the caller's number. We shall study this report to see whether introduction of similar equipment here would be beneficial. We are also considering a proposal from the Hull Safer Cities project for an assessment of the preventive effect of a call-tracing system to be operated by Kingston Communications in collaboration with the universities of Hull arid Manchester.