Reducing nuisance calls

Ways to reduce the number of nuisance calls received by vulnerable people in Scotland will be discussed with industry organisations this week.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown will chair the first meeting of the Nuisance Calls Commission on Wednesday. This follows a recently published Which? Report that found Scotland receives a higher number of nuisance calls compared to the rest of the UK.

Following the successful Nuisance Call Summit in June, experts will discuss steps to deal with persistent offenders, how to give consumers and businesses more power to combat these calls, and if stronger regulations are needed.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Brown said:

“Too many Scots are plagued by nuisance calls and it’s time this stopped. For many of us, they are simply annoying. For others, particularly the more vulnerable, including some older people, it can be a source of distress or even financial hardship and leave them anxious and even scared of answering their phone.

“We take this issue extremely seriously, which is why we are bringing together key stakeholders to look at effective ways to protect consumers and reduce the impact of unwanted calls.

“We welcome the recent UK Government announcement to consult on banning pensions cold calling. However, we believe more can be done to protect individuals from all kinds of harmful calls.

“While some key powers remain reserved to Westminster, we will look to use our new powers to reduce nuisance calls, while also considering what more the UK Government could do, and how we best work with them to take concerted action.”

Background

Nuisance Calls Commission - /groups/nuisance-calls-commission/

The Which? report showed that Glasgow came top of a table ranking 18 UK cities according to the percentage of nuisance calls received with Edinburgh second and Aberdeen fourth: http://press.which.co.uk/whichpressreleases/scottish-cities-top-the-table-for-nuisance-calls/

Chair - Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work

Scottish Government

Ofcom

Information Commissioner’s Office

Trading Standards Scotland

SCOTTS

Citizen Advice Scotland

Which?

Ofcom Communications Consumer Panel

Department for Culture, Media & Sport

Telephone Preference Service

BT

Scottish Council for Development and Industry