What is the TPS, and who has to screen against it?
Aaron Vihersola · Co-founder · Growth & marketingUpdated 7 Sep 2026The Telephone Preference Service is the UK’s official do-not-call register, and the corporate TPS is its equivalent for business numbers. The duty it creates belongs to the caller rather than to the person registered: a marketer must screen every list against both registers before dialling, and calling a registered number without consent breaches PECR. Registration itself is free and binds callers 28 days later.
The duty sits with the caller
The register binds whoever makes the call, not the person who registered, and that is the half most often got backwards. A marketer must screen every list against the TPS, and against the corporate TPS for business numbers, before dialling, and must keep a suppression list of anyone who objects directly. The registrant’s only act is the registration itself: free, and effective after 28 days. Consent overrides the register, but it has to be consent to calls of this kind.
The corporate TPS, the half people miss
B2B callers sometimes assume business numbers are fair game. They are not: the corporate TPS covers businesses that registered, and PECR applies to them too. A B2B campaign that skips CTPS screening is not aggressive, it is unlawful, which is one of the six questions worth asking any provider you are comparing.
What screening a list actually involves
Screening is not a one-off. The register changes daily as numbers are added, so a list cleaned once and then worked for a month goes stale while it is being called. Screening belongs close to the dial rather than close to the moment the list was bought. Two registers rather than one, and your own suppression list on top of both, because somebody who told you directly not to call again has objected whether or not they ever registered.
Why a selling platform tells you this
Because the register is the floor this platform is built on: numbers are screened before the dialer will connect a call. A seller here never has to wonder whether the list was clean, and a brand never has to take a provider’s word for it, the screening is in the pipe, and the recordings are attached to the sales.
The TPS stops lawful marketers. Fraud calls ignore it, so registration reduces marketing calls, not scams. Report those to Action Fraud. And this page will not tell anyone how to work around the register, because that is both unlawful and terrible selling.
Short answers to nearby questions
How often does a calling list need re-screening?
The register changes daily, so a list screened once and then worked for weeks drifts out of date while it is being called. Screening close to the dial rather than close to the purchase is what keeps a campaign clean, which is why it runs inside the dialer here instead of being a step somebody has to remember to repeat.
Does the TPS apply to B2B calls?
Yes, through the corporate TPS. Business numbers on the CTPS carry the same protection and PECR applies to those calls too, so a B2B campaign screened against the consumer register alone has done half the job.
Who is liable if a registered number gets called?
The caller, and the brand the call was made for. The duty to screen belongs to whoever dials, not to the person who registered, which is why the question worth asking any provider is how and when they screen rather than whether their lists arrive clean.