Examination of Witnesses (Questions 198
- 199)
TUESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2002
SIR CHRISTOPHER
BLAND, MR
CHRIS EARNSHAW
AND MR
IAN MORFETT
Chairman
198. Sir Christopher, I would like to welcome
you here this morning in your new capacity. I almost said, "So
we meet again." It is a great pleasure to see you with your
colleagues and we much appreciate your taking the trouble to be
present yourself.
(Sir Christopher Bland) Thank you, Chairman. As you
will appreciate, it was one of the real attractions of my new
job knowing that I would be able to come back to this Committee.
199. Thank you, Sir Christopher. If you would
like to make an opening statement, you would be welcome to do
so; otherwise we will go straight into the questioning.
(Sir Christopher Bland) We are very happy
to go straight to questions. Perhaps I could just introduce my
two colleagues, Mr Chris Earnshaw, who is our Group Engineering
Director, and Ian Morfett, who is in charge of regulatory affairs
for BT.
Michael Fabricant: I am going to apologise.
I am on the Standing Committee—
Chairman: Could I interrupt. I am sorry,
Michael. Sir Christopher, you and your colleagues may see Members
of the Committee going in and out of the room. This is not intended
as any kind of discourtesy, but the OFCOM Committee which is along
the corridor has some of our colleagues on it and therefore please
do not think it amiss if people do slip out from time to time.
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