Council Make Premium Rate Call Savings – FOI Revisited

Wrexham Council have cut costs by over 50% to premium rate calls and almost zeroed calls to the talking clock since we FOI’ed in 2011.

One of our very first stories back in 2011 was based off an FOI to Wrexham Council querying how much was being spent on premium rate calls, for example to the talking clock.

Back then we revealed how £20,000 had been spent on the premium rate calls, and £796.07 over three years to the talking clock – which we worked out to be about 2500 calls.

At the time we were passed seemingly obvious yet effective internal guidance to staff in response to the ‘negative coverage’ which gave strict instruction: “Staff must never ring speaking clock telephone services. If you need to know the exact time, look at the bottom right of your PC screen.”

Now in 2014 we thought we would see if such guidance was adhered to, and if costs had dropped due to the story being uncovered, by submitting an identical Freedom Of Information Request.

Back in 2011 we were provided with details broken down on a per-quarter basis over three years, also split into talking clock, directory services and other premium rate information.

Sadly our 2014 request is less complete as we are told: “Figures for years 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 are not held.”

One set of figures has been provided for the ‘Current Year’, which we assume is the current financial year from April to mid November, rather than calendar year due to the above response with nothing held for 2013-14.

Premium Rate Calls – £1,288.32
Directory Enquiries – £862.63
“Time” check – £14.97

All figures relate to payments to BT & TalkTalk.

Taking the average of £270 spent on the talking clock between 2008 to 2011, and hoping that the drop to the new rough £30 per year spend took place straight away it could equate to over £700 worth of savings due to that simple change.

With the above response appearing to cover 66% of the year, extrapolating the numbers to a full year would mean Premium Rate Calls could hit £1900, and Directory Enquiries hitting £1300. Comparing back to the averages revealed in 2011 there have been 54% savings on premium rate calls, and 52% savings made on calls to directory enquiries.

An unprompted yet helpful explanatory note was attached to the FOI response saying: “Please note the vast majority of the calls made to premium rate telephone numbers are in respect of alarm systems, postal printing services and monitoring systems in respect of sheltered housing accommodation, telecare etc.”

“The Council is a large and diverse organisation with offices and outlets all over the County Borough, including schools, and telephone calls are made to a range of different agencies and organisations about a whole range of subjects to ensure efficient and safe services are provided to our customers.”