<p>[holding answer 10 September 2012]: Unsolicited telephone calls are a nuisance for consumers and are prohibited under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) 2003 where made to a consumer who is registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and where the caller does not have prior consent for such calls. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has responsibility for enforcing the TPS and has powers to issue a fine of up to £500,000 for the most serious breaches of the regulations.</p><p>My Department is working to combat this problem and I met with ICO, Ofcom and TPS to press for further action in this area. As a result measures have been introduced that will help to provide more effective protection for consumers. To improve access to information for complaints Ofcom set up new website pages on 1 October at:</p><p>http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/privacy</p><p>that provides clearer advice on nuisance calls, texts and e-mails and it also published a new Consumer Guide, which provides clearer information and signposts the correct place to make a complaint:</p><p>http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/tackling-nuisance-calls-and-messages</p>