You may already be aware that you can register to opt out of receiving unsolicited sales and marketing calls on your home phone line, but did you know that there is a free scheme that allows you to do the same for your business number(s)….?
The Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) is the central opt out register for companies in the UK and Northern Ireland, and allows you to register either some or all of your business numbers.
You can register mobile phone numbers, but while this will stop marketing voice calls it does not cover SMS messages. These can only be stopped by sending an ‘opt-out’ message to the individual companies involved.
The CTPS acts in the same way as the Personal Telephone Preference Service, with the key difference that you have to renew your numbers each year. You will be emailed a reminder to do this and it is a very quick process, taking about a minute. If you fail to renew, your numbers will be removed from the CTPS.
Once registered on the service, which can take up to 28 days to process, it is a legal requirement that companies, including charities and other voluntary organisations, should not make calls to your numbers.
Companies who are reported to the CTPS for breaching the legislation, which falls under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2004, are included in a monthly report sent to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) the body responsible for enforcement.
One important thing to note is that companies with which you have an existing relationship, either as a customer or donor, can still call you if they have consent from you at any stage, unless you have specifically told them not to call you for marketing purposes.
Companies carrying out genuine market research are also exempt from the legislation.
A free service, the CTPS does not receive any government funding and is operated by the Direct Marketing Commission, on behalf of Ofcom.
