We’ll turn up heat on cold call cowboys, vow ministers

THE Scottish Government is to crack down on cold callers after it was revealed Scots are plagued by more nuisance calls than anywhere else in the UK.

Around half of all phone calls to landlines in Scotland are unsolicited – with many aimed at vulnerable households, including the elderly.

Campaigners have argued calls from certain sectors – such as PPI, car accidents and medical negligence compensation claims – should be banned.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown will lead the second meeting of the Nuisance Calls Commission today, which includes several consumer, industry and regulatory bodies.

They are set to discuss how ‘persistent offenders’ who continually make unwanted calls can be dealt with, while looking at ways to ‘empower and support’ companies who want to work with authorities to find a solution and crack down on the practice.

Last year it was revealed that cities in Scotland have the highest rate of nuisance calls in the UK.

Glasgow ranked top out of 18 cities across Britain, with Edinburgh second and Aberdeen fourth.

Consumer body Which? and blocking provider trueCall analysed more than nine million phone calls made to their customers between January 2013 and September last year.

They found 51.5 per cent of calls in Glasgow were classified as a nuisance, as were 47.8 per cent in Edinburgh and 45.6 per cent in Aberdeen.

Discussions with the commission, set up last year, are at an early stage, but ministers hope to publish detailed plans on how the number of nuisance calls can be slashed by the summer.

Last night, Mr Brown said: ‘I set up the Nuisance Calls Commission to tackle the growing problem of nuisance calls which are disproportionately affecting Scotland. By bringing together key stakeholders, the Nuisance Calls Commission seeks to develop a range of effective ways to protect consumers and reduce the impact of unwanted calls.

‘The Scottish Government is determined to make the most of

‘Too many people are being plagued’

our new consumer powers to take positive steps to reduce the impact nuisance calls have on the lives of people in Scotland.

‘Too many people are being plagued by nuisance calls and enough is enough. I will be bringing forward a joint action plan outlining the Commission’s proposals and progress made prior to summer recess.’

Consumer and industry bodies on the commission include Which?, BT, Telephone Preference System and regulator Ofcom.

Last September, Glasgow firm Omega Marketing Services was fined £60,000 after bombarding telephones with 1.6million calls. It made almost seven calls a second using an automated system in a bid to sell green energy equipment.

Households targeted by the firm claimed they were left frightened by ‘aggressive’ repeat calls despite joining the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

The TPS was set up as an official no-call list so householders, including elderly and vulnerable people, could end repeated harassment by cold call companies.

Earlier this week BT announced it had set up a service for customers that will divert cold callers to a junk voicemail box.

BT Call Protect will analyse call data to identify rogue numbers, which will be diverted, and will block any offenders which try again – even if they change their numbers.

The move comes after the firm recorded more than 31million nuisances calls to its customers in a single week in December.

Customers will also be able to identify nuisance callers by dialling in the code 1572 after receiving a call.