Peers demand total ban on cold-calling ‘menace’

PEERS last night pushed for a ban on cold-calling as the House of Lords inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the Government.

The Lords backed, by 253 votes to 205, an amendment calling for unsolicited calls to be outlawed.

The Government originally pledged to ban pensioner cold calling in September last year, but has since ruled out any legislation until 2020. However, a group of cross-party peers warned that the delay would see millions more people plagued by nuisance calls and put at risk of being scammed.

Lord Sharkey, the Liberal Democrat peer who tabled the bill, said the ban is necessary to deal with the “omnipresent menace”.

Baroness Altmann, a Tory peer and former pensions minister, said: “People need protection from this nuisance now, they shouldn’t have to wait still more years for a ban.

Responding for the Government, Baroness Buscombe, a work and pensions minister, said there were already measures in place to protect consumers from nuisance calls.

But she also said the Government recognised that more needed to be done “to truly eradicate this problem”.

A DWP spokesman said: “We’re already planning to ban cold calling and will publish draft legislation early next year, outlining how we will protect the public from pension scams which cost people their life savings.”