§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment has been made as to the additional costs which will be incurred by his Department as a result of the changes in national telephone dialling codes next year; and how much this change will cost his Department in additional expenditure.
§ Sir John WheelerWork has already been completed to reprogramme all the telephone switchboards in the Northern Ireland civil service to cope with the changes to the national dialling codes later this year. The cost of this work was minimal as all the private sector suppliers involved carried out the work free of charge. The only Government expenditure, therefore, was a small staffing overhead of approximately £1,500 to plan and co-ordinate the operation.
12WUpdating stationery and reprogramming telephone and fax memories will incur minimal additional costs.