The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the United Kingdom's official do not call list. It allows businesses and individuals to opt out of unsolicited marketing calls.[1]
Similar do not call lists are implemented in other countries, such as the National Do Not Call Registry in the United States, and the Do Not Call Register in Australia.
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the only such register that is enforced by law in the UK. TPS was created in 1996 by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA). In 1999, it was made a statutory requirement and was included in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
TPSL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the DMA, who run the TPS under contract from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Funding for TPS comes entirely from organisations that licence the TPS file, neither the ICO nor the government provide any funding.
Marketers that wish to make telephone calls are legally obliged to screen their lists against the TPS. They can get access to the TPS file by licensing it directly from TPSL or from a ‘list cleaner’ that provides TPS screening services to third parties.
If a telephone number is registered with the TPS/CTPS, organisations are legally required – by the Privacy and Electronic (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 – to refrain from calling it. In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) enforces the law and has power to fine firms that break it.
There are many organisations who comply with their obligations under the above regulations, however, as with any law there are those that choose not to comply, and these are in most cases the companies who are making these calls to consumers who have registered their preference (with TPS) as wanting to opt out of receipt of unsolicited direct marketing calls.
Registration with the TPS doesn't physically restrict a telephone line, so it can't stop anyone from dialling a number. Calls from friends and family or any other calls where the caller is not selling a product or service, are not subject to TPS restrictions.
However, if the purpose of the call is sales or marketing, organisations are legally obliged to screen their call lists against the TPS. They must not make an unsolicited direct marketing call to a number registered with the TPS. Service-related calls from banks, credit card companies and so on are not subject to TPS restriction.
The only exception to the TPS register is where a registered individual gives an organisation specific permission to contact them as this then falls out of TPS remit.
TPS does not stop other call types such as market research, debt collection, scam calls and general nuisance calls.