§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had with OFCOM on unsolicited telephone calls for commercial purposes. [166049]
§ Mr. GardinerThe level of complaints in Northern Ireland concerning unsolicited calls has been small and as such I have not intervened directly in this matter.
The use of telephones for unsolicited commercial, particularly direct marketing, reasons is covered by Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications. The Regulations came into force on 11 December 2003 and are enforced by the Information Commissioner's Office, rather than OFCOM. The regulations work on the principle of opt-out rules on unsolicited direct marketing by phone; it is a breach of the regulations to make an unsolicited direct marketing call to any subscriber who has either told that caller not to ring, or who has been registered on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) for at least 28 days. Currently only individual subscribers have the right to register on the TPS but in response to a Government consultation undertaken last year this will be opened to corporate subscribers also as of 25 June 2004.