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Written question asked by Bill Wiggin (Conservative) on Tuesday, 1 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 3 November 2005. It was answered by Elliot Morley (Labour) on Wednesday, 9 November 2005 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Environment Agency

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for what reasons the Environment Agency telephone helpline is unable to process calls without the name and address of callers.
Answer

The Environment Agency operates three main contact lines. All of these are able to process calls without the name and address of the caller except in the situations set out as follows:1. Customer Contact Centre (08708 506506)This centre receives most of the general telephone enquiries from external customers and delivers some specific business services."(a) General enquiry calls—The agency normally asks the customer for their name only so that it can personalise the call as a matter of courtesy and so that if it cannot resolve the customer's enquiry, the call can be transferred effectively to another member of staff.""There are some situations where the agency asks for an address:""where it is going to send a publication or application form to the customer;""where it needs to ensure it transfers the customer to the correct area team—the agency normally just ask for postcode so that they can locate the correct area;""where the customer actually needs to talk to their local authority rather than to the agency, it normally asks for the postcode so that it can provide the correct local authority contact details.""(b) Flood risk/property search enquiries—To be able to respond to these enquiries correctly, the call centre needs full address details—a postcode is not specific enough.""(c) Hazardous waste producer registrations""The Agency needs full address details to be to deliver this business service."2. FloodlineThis service provides flood warning information and flood risk awareness services.Full address information is required in order to inform customers about flood risk related to their property, but not for general advice on flood awareness/protection.3. Incident hotlineThis service is used for recording pollution/flooding incidents. Although the name and address of the customer is requested so that the agency can update how the incident is being managed and resolved, it is however entirely acceptable for customers to report incidents anonymously.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
24840; 439 c481-2W;439 c481-2W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Environment Agency Telephone services
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk