Government departments have been ordered to stop using higher-rate phone lines as the contact for key services.

Cabinet Office guidance states it is "inappropriate" to pay high charges for such services - "particularly for vulnerable and low-income groups".

A recent National Audit Office report found the numbers, often starting 0845 or 0870, cost callers £56m in 2012.

Departments will have to explain themselves to Cabinet ministers if they fail to follow the rules.

While a deadline of 2 weeks would be good I suspect that some of these numbers are provided by third parties who have contracts with the government departments so there may be penalty clauses if the contract is terminated early.
In addition, these numbers presumably provide a revenue stream of some sort to the departments using them so I'm not expecting to see a stampede to swap the numbers for free/low cost ones in the short term.

Still, the sooner these numbers are replaced the better.