§ Ms. AbbottTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services' code in preventing the abuse of premium rate telephone services by invitations to unemployed people to make calls about non-existent jobs; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LeighSince the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) introduced its revised code of practice in February this year, the number of complaints received by ICSTIS about employment services has halved. ICSTIS remains concerned about misleading and dishonest employment services, however, and an ICSTIS working party published a review on 3 November which contains the recommendation to ban all employment services from the premium rate network, except those where the service provider or information provider is the direct organisation offering the jobs. ICSTIS has invited comments on its recommendations by 15 December.