Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Rev Dr Ian Clark [NTC 014]

As a pensioner in my late 70s I regard all commercial calls (including so-called “surveys”) as not just annoying but an intolerable abuse. There have been weeks when they have averaged four or five per day, often silent, abandoned, or recorded. I cannot afford to ignore the phone when it rings, as I am on call for vulnerable neighbours with alarms, and there are many people in the community, as well as family, who need to contact me. I am also aware of elderly friends and neighbours (including myself) who could easily have a serious fall if summoned unnecessarily to the phone; and who are vulnerable to the very plausible forms of Scam on offer. (One neighbour, an experienced teacher, very nearly gave her bank details to a cold caller recently as, on her own rueful admission, she “was taken in”.)

I myself take a robust line with cold callers, including the use of an extra-loud dog whistle, appalling expletives not usually associated with the clergy, and (if I can get a word in) the threat of prosecution. One should not have to do this in one’s own home? Many calls are made at antisocial hours. I have even had one at 3am offering to “mend my computer”—there was nothing wrong with it—admittedly from abroad.

The TPS is in my experience a total waste of time and space. I have been registered with them for decades and check periodically that my tel. no. is still on their list. I recently logged calls with all available details of date, time and organisation for a week and reported the whole lot. First TPS said I was not registered, then admitted that I was after all. They then said they were unable to do anything about any of the calls as there were “insufficient details”. It is in fact very seldom possible to obtain the caller’s number by “1471”, still less get them to divulge their address. On occasions I have told callers that I am registered with TPS and they have laughed uproariously and said “So what?” I have sometimes reported what are clearly Scams to the police, who have duly logged the fact, but I have (understandably?) heard no more about it.

As a citizen, phone-user and tax-payer may I encourage Parliament to put a stop to this abuse as soon as possible.

August 2013