I don't really care whether the Prime Minister disagrees or not.

It is my opinion, backed up by 20 years of working in Parliament, and five years in local government, that the majority of Civil Servants do not know what they are doing.

The only things the vast majority of Civil Servants had any knowledge of was their own salaries, and the honours system, and of those two things they knew a great deal.

And what expense claims they can get away with too, surely?

The Prime Minister, or rather the DoH official who drafted the petition reply for him, was talking rubbish. This was simply falsely justified buck-passing.

Telephone tariffs are not set locally. Furthermore, the principle of the NHS being "free at the point of need" is too politically sensitive to be at the discretion of unaccountable local Trusts. (Even those granted "foundation" status seek to recruit their own "members", to whom they have a very limited accountability.)

Ofcom has made a complete mess of regulating use of NGNs in general and fell out with the Cabinet Office over implementation of 03. Now that 03 is in place, all that Ofcom can do is to encourage its use. It could certainly be more vigorous in this activity, but does not hold powers to compel anyone to adopt 03 or to abandon revenue sharing numbers.

Government departments and other public bodies must each make their own decisions, although the Cabinet Office, through the Contact Council in particular, has a crucial role to play in helping these to be made correctly.

Those who despair of civil servants can only turn their attention to the relevant Ministers and Select Committees of Parliament at a UK level, and their democratically-accountable equivalents locally. If we despair of both groups, then we have no hope of achieving anything and become moaners rather than campaigners.

There are modest successes to report. Ofcom has regulated for 03 and both civil servants and elected politicians have been seen to decide to adopt it in place of 08xx numbers. It is happening very slowly, as anyone with experience would expect, but it is happening.

I have no idea how that double post happened but it served a purpose!

But some small successes are emerging:

Oxfam is to change to 0300 soon.

The Adjudicator's Office also uses 0300 phone and fax numbers.

Essex Police and Northumbria Police now have 03xx non-emergency contact numbers.

The Driving Standards Agency has switched from 0870 to 0300.

The RSPCA's contact numbers are now all 0300.

Virgin Radio's studio number is an 0330.

Otelo appears to be changing from 0845 to 0330 numbers.

Ofqual is similarly advertising 0300 numbers

[quote=Heinz;23058564]I have no idea how that double post happened but it served a purpose!

But some small successes are emerging:

Please trust in your power. BT is in the process of getting rid of all non-geographical numbers with free numbers.

Others like BG, Sky and of course BBC should note!

Take every opportunity to protest against this scam and boycot those who are trying to defraud you.

yourself?
As a mobile phone user I do not ring rip-off 0870 or 0845 numbers at all.
And anyone with an inclusive calls package will avoid you too if at all possible!!!!!

And if I want a real local business I certainly would not ring an 0845 or 0870 number no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!

As expected it looks like Ofcon have renegged on their promise to force recorded messages on 0870 numbers.
So they all move sideways anyway to 0844 etc?

I know 0870 had minor safety implications but surely these few numbers could have been given an exception!!!!!!!!!!!

www.saynoto0870.com . Has 0844, 0845 etc. solutions too.

totally unamazed by the ignorance by Ofcom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7380147.stm
Ofcom state "It is simply unacceptable that consumers are paying up to 25p a minute to call 0870 numbers from mobile phones"

Vodaphone charge 35p and 30p per minute payg. Does anyone there actually do anything. They dont even know their own industry.

Apologies if a misprint by the BBC but doubtful.

But that wouldn't have punished them for the 0870 number.

Duplicated by mistake.
Last edited by muchaggrieved : 22-05-2008 at 09:40

I am glad I started this discussion and I am glad to see the overwhelming response.

Why ofcom need further two years to stamp out this scam? They were responsible for starting the scam and encourged the rip off by the telecom and business companies in the first place.

Let us urge them to stop this NOW and not at some later date to invent some other ripoff. Ofcom are very good that!!!