Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to review the effectiveness of the Telephone Preference Service.

The regulators carried out a review this year. The Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) reviewed the effectiveness of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and published their findings on 23 July 2014. This showed that TPS registration reduced the volume of live unsolicited marketing calls by about a third and had a wider benefit, as it also reduced other types of nuisance calls by an average of a third.

Consent and lead generation issues can also impact TPS registered consumers. In its report on this subject (published 8 December 2014), the consumer group Which? acknowledged the benefits of the TPS, as a tool for consumers looking to prevent or reduce nuisance calls. Which? also put forward recommendations to the regulators on how to improve the benefits of the TPS and create greater awareness of the service.

Tackling unsolicited marketing nuisance calls remains a priority for DCMS and we published the first ever Nuisance Calls Action Plan on 30 March 2014:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nuisance-calls-action-plan-unveiled. This set out our achievements to date, work underway and proposed actions for the future, which included both legislative and non-legislative proposals. Taken together these measures will greatly benefit consumers now and in the future.