According to an article I read in Tuesday's Daily Mirror ... rip~off premium phone numbers - currently in use for accessing various Government public services - are to be banned.

Apparently, Whitehall bosses were shamed into taking remedial action after MPs revealed Departments such as Work & Pensions raked in £56 million last year from hard-up callers.

Alternatives to the numbers are eventually to be set up following a Public Accounts Committee disclosure that 'Cable & Wireless' were making £1 million out of a deal with HM Revenue & Customs.