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John Hemming MP " Ten times nothing is still nothing"

5.53.56pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th Sep 2005

John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley

Writing to Ofcom and the DTI in response to Alan Johnsons announcement of an increase in the level of fines for "persistent misuse" of the telephone system John Hemming said. "It is all well and good having bigger fines, but if no-one gets fined then that takes us nowhere."

"Ofcom already have the power to fine firms that misuse the phone system. They could have instituted a £5,000 fine for Kitchens Direct who did 1,600,000 Silent Calls. Ofcom, however, have not been using the powe they have. Ten times nothing is still nothing."

"What we need is action from Ofcom. They have promised new guidance for October which should make it possible to see the end of the Silent Call. The ball is in their court."

ENDS

Notes for Editors

Quote from Alan Johnson's speech:

"But I want to go further. We will take new powers to tackle rogue estate agents and we'll increase ten fold the fines on companies that plague consumers and terrify vulnerable pensioners with silent calls."

Speech on Labour website:

http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php?id=news2005&ux_news[id]=ac05

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Previous news story: Lib Dems call on National Audit Office to investigate tax credit cover up (Wed 28th Sep 2005).
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