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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of nuisance calls.

We have taken a number of steps to reduce the number of unsolicited direct marketing calls and allow members of the public to identify nuisance callers. They include:

• Amending the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations to require all direct marketing callers to provide Caller Line Identification, allowing people to identify direct marketing calls and choose whether to accept them or not.
• Funding the National Trading Standards Scams Team to provide call blocking devices to vulnerable people in all parts of the UK; and
• Encouraging high-tech firms to develop innovative and affordable solutions to tackle nuisance calls.