Departmental Telephone Services

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0870, (b) 0845 and (c) 0800 his Department (i) operates and (ii) sponsors; how many calls each number received in the last 12 months; and whether alternative numbers charged at the BT local rate are available in each case. (305207)

The information requested is as follows:

(i) Information is available centrally on eight “08” telephone lines operated by the Department. These are listed in the table with the number of calls received by each line where that information is held and the alternative contact numbers where available.

Telephone number	Number of calls January to December 2009	Alternative number	Notes
0845 015 0010	15,626	n/a
0845 015 0020	637	n/a
0845 015 0030	175	n/a
0845 019 0001	1,393	n/a
0845 600 0678	¹16,867	n/a	No longer published. Since June 2009 calls to this number have been rerouted to the new Pay and Work Rights helpline.
0845 600 9006	180,000	n/a
0845 955 5105	²—		No longer published. Since June 2009 calls to this number have been rerouted to the new Pay and Work Rights helpline.
0870 513 4486	²—	020 7215 6880
n/a = not available ¹ January to May 2009 ² Not held

(ii) The only information available from central records on BIS sponsored “08” telephone lines is for 0800 917 2368, the new Pay and Work Rights helpline. Between May and December 2009 the helpline has received 54,000 calls. There is no alternative contact number for this service.

Volume 503: debated on Monday 11 January 2010