asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the involvement of Ministers in the decision to impose price control over mobile telephone charges; by whom that decision was taken; under what powers; when and by whom those powers were granted; and when the decision was debated in Parliament. [HL4105]

The UK has been actively engaged in negotiating the international mobile roaming regulation, in line with the views of the Ministers concerned—the then Minister for Industry and the Regions, my right honourable friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth, and subsequently my right honourable friend the current Minster of State for Industry and the Regions. In parallel, the draft regulation was put before the scrutiny committees of both Houses and was subsequently cleared by both. Scrutiny was cleared in this House when the findings of the scrutiny committee chaired by the right honourable Lord Freeman were debated in this House on 24 May and by the Commons committee in its meeting on 6 June.

The origins of the international roaming mobile phone prices regulation are a sector inquiry carried out by the European Commission in 2000, which found that prices were unreasonably high. Despite a series of warnings by the Commission, the mobile network operators did not address the issue. The European telecommunications regulators group, of which Ofcom is a member, asked the European Commission to address this matter on a European level, as it felt that national Administrations would not be able to do so effectively as a result of the trans-border nature of the roaming market. As a result, after two rounds of consultation with stakeholders, including HMG, the Commission issued a draft regulation. The regulation, which was based on Article 95 of the treaty, was granted political approval last week at the Telecoms Council (at which the UK was represented by my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Industry and the Regions) and is expected to come into effect by the end of June.