§ Mr. FrenchTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what estimate he has made of the cost to the industry of the practice of the cloning of mobile telephones; [5473]
(2) what measures his Department is taking to combat the cloning of mobile telephones; [5524]
(3) what plans he has to amend the Telecomunications Act 1984 in order to outlaw the cloning of mobile telephones. [5471]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorOn 24 October,Official Report, column 549, I announced the recommendations of the industry and Government study group on mobile telephone fraud. One of the main recommendations was that the Government should consider extending the range of offences under section 42 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 so that it would cover the possession or supply of equipment capable of use in the course of or in connection with the current section 42 offence of dishonestly obtaining telecommunication services with intent to avoid payment. I am considering this recommendation carefully.
Figures regarding the cost to the industry of the practice of cloning mobile telephones are not held by my Department. The mobile telecommunications industry did provide some estimates for the overall scale of mobile telephone phone fraud as part of its contribution to the work of the industry and Government study group mobile telephone fraud. These have been reproduced in the briefing paper, which has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.