999 SERVICES FOR CABLE AND MOBILE PHONE USERS

Early day motion 74, tabled 2 December 1998 by George Galloway (Labour). Signed by 36 members.

That this House expresses its concern at the reports in Which, the magazine of the Consumers Association, on BBC Scotland and in the Daily Record about the failures of the Excell Call Centre in Glasgow, which handles 999 calls from many cable and mobile telephone service providers including Mercury and Cable and Wireless, which have resulted in 1 in 20 emergency calls, 200 calls per night, being sent to out-of-date addresses, further overstretching the hard-pressed police, fire and ambulance services with consequent risks to people's lives; and calls upon the Government to institute a thorough inquiry and to take the necessary steps to establish a centralised national regulated call-processing centre to handle all emergency calls.

Signatures by party: Labour 31, Liberal Democrat 3, Labour/Co-operative 2.