MPs to wage war on cold calling

Telesales firms who make "silent nuisance calls" are facing a ban after it emerged that millions of people are being plagued by them.

A Bill to outlaw the practice will be considered by MPs following complaints that phone users feel as if they are being targeted by stalkers.

Silent calls have soared in recent months as new technology allows firms to generate more calls than they have sales staff to field them.

And when phone users dial 1471, they get a message saying "number withheld", leading them to worry about who called.

Now Labour MP Kevin Brennan has won cross-party support for the Bill amid criticism that the current law is too weak to stamp out the calls.

The Bill, which will get its second reading next week, would make it an offence to phone a customer after more than one cold call. It would also force firms to reveal their phone number when 1471 was dialled.

The Bill may run out of parliamentary time but Mr Brennan is an aide to Labour manifesto supremo Alan Milburn, so it may be included in Labour's blueprint for the general election.

Mr Brennan revealed that five million people, nearly a quarter of all phone users, had now signed up with a service that means telesales firms should not use their number.

About a third of them blamed silent calls for their switch to the Telephone Preference Service, but about 12,000 still got "junk calls". Britain's direct marketing industry, combining both cold calling and junk mail, was worth ?13billion this year, an increase of 10 per cent.

But the Communications Act allows a fine of only ?5,000 if a firm makes "persistent misuse" of a phone line.

Guidelines allow up to five per cent of "silent" calls. Only two firms have been reprimanded and both escaped a fine.