asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether, in reply to written representations to his Department in recent weeks, he now proposes to continue to issue the standard general reply which has been issuing in very recent times and which bears no reference whatever to the specific inquiry being made by a Member of this House; and whether he will consider reverting to the former practice of giving as much information as possible about each individual query in order to provide the maximum information.
Written Answers. - Telephone Service Inquiries.
143.
The number of inquiries and representations being received about the provision of telephone service is such that it would not be possible at present within the Estimate provision for the current year to allocate all the staff needed to get the detailed information necessary to enable each representation to be answered individually in the short term except by diverting more staff to that work from making telephone connections.
The telephone applications that will be met over the rest of this year are being programmed as closely as possible at present and when this has been done, it is expected that it will be possible to give more precise information in replying to representations received. Similar arrangements will be made for next year when the current year's programme has been completed.