The Telephone Preference Service is provided by the government and lets you register your phone number. Once registered it is illegal for cold callers to call your number (legally, telemarketers must not to call a TPS subscribed number after 28 days, but you should start noticing a gradual decline from registration).

Registration is free and only takes 2 minutes.  The service was setup because there so many cold callers from companies about PPI, Accident Claims, Overseas Scams, Spam SMS and Other Nuisance Calls.

The original legislation was introduced in May 1999. It has subsequently been updated and now the relevant legislation is the Privacy and Electronic (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

Q. Who can register?

TPS is for consumers at their residential address, sole traders and, except in Scotland, partnerships, but not businesses.  There is also a separate corporate telephone preference service for companies to register their phone numbers to prevent cold callers.

Q. Who pays for TPS?

No money is received from the Government to run the Service, the direct marketing industry pays for it. They will also take complaints against cold calling companies but they don’t do enforcement – that’s down to the Information Commissioners Office.

If you are plagued by cold callers – then register with TPS online, but beware of callers pretending to offer this service – they are usually scammers.