§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many, and which, government departments and agencies are currently using 0870 telephone numbers for the purposes of public communication with their offices. [HL434]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)The Office for Government Contracts Buying Services (OGCBS) draws up framework contracts for government departments to purchase telephony services. These do not stipulate what kinds of services individual departments should choose, and so there is no centrally held information on which government departments and agencies currently use 0870 numbers.
The independent regulator the Office of Communications (Ofcom) allocates 0870 numbers to eligible network communications providers in units of 10.000 numbers. Those providers then allocate individual numbers to end-users either directly or through resellers. Although Ofcom knows who is reponsible for all number blocks it has no record of individual 0870 number end-users, including government departments and agencies.