Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Mark Iliff [NTC 001]

I welcome the committee’s decision to look into this issue. I signed up with TPS several years ago, but during the last six to nine months the number of unsolicited calls has become higher than it was then. And that’s after going ex-directory, which I never felt the need to do before.

I find it hard to relate to “nuisance” as a descriptor. My work includes computer programming, which requires a high degree of concentration. The cost of taking a phone call is higher than just the time it takes: picking up the mental threads, and maybe restarting the step that was interrupted, are real costs too.

I don’t have many ideas for remedies, and I’m confident that the committee can improve on these:

require mass callers to obtain a licence: it’s a legal requirement for radio broadcasts, and listeners can opt out of those easily and instantly;

ban mass calling from offshore: make UK residence a condition of the licence; and

automatic fines—£100 per minute, say—for every call made where the mass caller cannot demonstrate consent.

Stealing time should be just as unacceptable as stealing possessions.

July 2013

Prepared 4th December 2013