sbiddle:  not Telecom.

Steve again, thanks for outlining how the processes work currently.  I'm sure I won't be the only one interested in how this stuff works.

With respect to Telecom, my view is that Telecom is a private company and has no social obligation at all.  They provide the 111 service today because they're paid to and they're still the sensible choice because of their size (but even that is changing).

With respect to 'who is 111'.  Yes, that's exactly why I suggested Telecom.

Telecom should simply be paid to collect the information.  Most towns have a telecom store and telecom staff understand telephone numbers and have the computing plat forms in place to deal with this sort of stuff.

I was going to suggest that you should just walk into any police station, but they don't have the level of computing systems, don't understand phone numbers and have the sort of set up to deal with such issues effectively in my view - what's more, there are more telecom stores than police stations in my area.

But if I was going to be really fair, then in my view everyone with a phone retail store should be able to update this information for people.  But what's more, it should be controlled via a central government web site and a simple system of validation in place such as the address validation at TradeMe.

Seriously, this is pathetic.  I can validate my address with trademe with more than enough validity for emergency services and it costs me nothing to do.

I put my address on line and they post me a letter with a code to confirm the location details.