I was so thrilled when I dialled my first geographic number obtained from saynoto0870.com.  [The number was for Inland Revenue, Bootle; instead of their normal 0845 300 3939 number I used 0151 471 3003].  To my great consternation I was greeted with the comment that as "an ordinary taxpayer" I could not use the number dialled because it is restricted to agents and practitioners only.  When I asked why could I not use it I was told that agents and practitioners expect to jump the queue and not to have to wait their turn.  I explained that as a pensioner I cannot afford these expensive non geographic numbers with their inevitable lengthy waiting times.  The response was less than helpful other than offering me a fax number which for anyone intersted is 0121 300 1593.

You could try neighbouring numbers 0151 471 3001, 0151 471 3002, 0151 471 3004, 0151 471 3005 etc.

A Google of 0151 471 3000 shows that it is Unilever, so that's no good!

The Inland Revenue information on “Priority Lines” is here.

It clearly is government policy to charge citizens for contacting government departments.  The first fairly recent example was the removal of the OHMS postal service.