I thank the noble Lord, Lord Renwick, for his detailed explanation of the Bill. I share the concern of my noble friend Lady Dean for the consumer. The crime here is telecommunications fraud, affecting both mobile and fixed networks. The noble Lord, Lord Renwick, told us all about the way it operates. As he told us, that equipment has recently become available and is very cheap.
Equipment is available also to change the identity of a stolen telephone.
There is even equipment available which will detect the identity numbers of telephones nearby. All that information, as we have been told, is used to make calls on other people's telephone bills. The noble Lord told us that the fraud is huge. The industry reports some 20,000 mobile telephones stolen each month, and some 8,000 cloning instances occurring each month. I share the concern of my noble friend Lady Dean that the telephone companies themselves must take some action.