The estimated cost of switching telephone inquiry lines to freephone numbers is as follows.
Estimated cost Notes DfT(C) £20,000 per year. Estimated cost of switching the main DfT enquiry/switchboard number to a freephone number. DVLA £5.5 million to change from 0870 to 0800 freephone plus £2 million per year charges from the service provider. — DSA No figures available. Initial assessments suggest high costs as charges for over 15,000 calls per month would have to be levied on the costs of theory and practical driving tests, negating the net benefit to the customer. However, DSA is currently assessing the feasibility of switching to a set charge per minute rate, which should limit the cost to between 1p and 5p per minute. HA £8,000 per year. — MCGA £5,000 in first year, with future costs of £1,000 per year. — VOSA There would be no fee to switch inquiry line to a freephone number. Call charges and quarterly fees would then vary according to the call plan chosen. — VGA ' n/a VGA does not have an inquiry line. GCDA n/a GCDA does not have an inquiry line.
The following revenue was accrued from national rate telephone lines in each of the last five years:
Revenue accrued in last five years (£) Notes DfT(C) n/a The Department does not use any national rate numbers DVLA 2003-04 875,000 Information not available before 2003-04 2004-05 1,945,000 2005-06 2,423,000 2006-07 11,601,000 DSA 2001-02 371 ,000 2002-03 370,000 2003-04 714,000 2004-05 1,463,000 2005-06 833,000 HA 2005-06 1,000 The one revenue-generating line was not set up until March 2005 MCGA — n/a MCGA has no revenue-generating telephone lines VOSA 2004-05 12,500 Cannot separately identify telephone line revenue before April 2004 2005-06 67,900 2006-07 251,020 VGA — n/a VGA has no revenue-generating lines GCDA — n/a GCDA has no revenue-generating lines 1 to October 2 to end October