To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of whether UKPorting will meet the September 2009 deadline set by Ofcom to ensure that the time taken to move a telephone number between mobile telephone operators is reduced to two hours.

At present we have not made our own assessment on whether the deadline set by Ofcom to ensure that the time taken to move a telephone number between mobile telephone operators is reduced to two hours will be met. Pending an ongoing Competition Appeals Tribunal investigation into this issue on 18 June 2008, it would be inappropriate to provide any comment until after that appeal has been heard.