The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so.
Organisations with which you have an ongoing relationship, for example those who regard you as a customer, (or in the case of charities - a donor) may well gather your consent during the early stages of your relationship with them and will therefore be entitled to call you even if your number is registered on TPS, unless you have previously told them specifically that you object to them calling you for marketing purposes.
The TPS can accept the registration of mobile telephone numbers, however it is important to note that this will prevent the receipt of marketing voice calls but not SMS (text) messages. If you wish to stop receiving SMS marketing messages, please send an 'opt-out' request to the company involved.
As TPS registration only prevents marketing calls, organisations will still be able to call you for the purposes of genuine market research.
Organisations that use recorded phone message to try and sell or promote their products or services have to comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. These say that marketers who leave recorded phone messages must obtain prior consent from the subscriber before they can make such a call.
Where a subscriber receives a recorded phone message they haven't agreed to there may have been a breach of the regulations. If you are receiving recorded messages and have not given prior permission and can identify the organisation leaving the message, you can complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who are the body responsible for enforcing the above regulation. Their details are:
The Information Commissioners Office
Tele: 03031231113
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx
