Curious, so was I at the end of '97. Ours gave the agent a full screen summary of the caller which we pulled out of the national phone database and a copy of their tax dossier. They still asked for the SOFI number (NI number). When we asked why they did this when they had the name, address, telephone number, SOFI number, tax dossier and all the rest that they needed to immediately begin dealing with their customer, they inevitably said "Because they (the departmental heads) said we had to since we couldn't trust the system".

So we told their bosses and training people this, 'cos the whole point of the system was to boost the agent's efficiency and reduce call time by having this information at their fingertips on the screen. "Yes, yes, we'll change the training".

The first question they asked me (in December 2005 when I last rung them) was "Could I have your name and SOFI number please?"