Commission to consider new laws to tackle nuisance calls
New regulations to tackle nuisance calls are to be considered after a report showed Scottish cities suffer from the highest rates in the UK.
New regulations to tackle nuisance calls are to be considered after a report showed Scottish cities suffer from the highest rates in the UK.
Chaired by Economy Secretary Keith Brown, the first Nuisance Calls Commission will meet this week with groups including BT, Ofcom and Citizen Advice Scotland to discuss ways to reduce the number of calls, and those received by vulnerable people in particular.
Glasgow ranked top out of 18 cities across the UK, with Edinburgh second and Aberdeen fourth in a recent Which? study.
More than nine million business phone calls made between January 2013 and September 2016 were analysed and it was found more than half (51.5%) of calls in Glasgow were classified as a nuisance, as were 47.8% in Edinburgh and 45.6% in Aberdeen.
Scottish customers received an average of 42 nuisance calls a month between April and September this year, up from 35 per month in the previous six months.
Following a Nuisance Call Summit in June, the commission will discuss steps to deal with persistent offenders, how to give consumers and businesses more power to combat calls, and if stronger regulations are needed.
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.”