Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan, has given a warm welcome to a tightening up on nuisance silent telephone calls by the government.  Mr Brennan who introduced a Bill in parliament two years ago to regulate silent nuisance calls by companies has waged a long campaign on behalf of telephone users.

Now the Minister for Industry, Alun Michael MP, has announced new measures designed to tackle corporate nuisance calls.  These measures, including increasing the fine for persistent misuse of an electronic communications network from £5,000 to £50,000, will force companies to reduce the number of silent calls.

Corporate nuisance calls typically occur when a call centre uses a predictive or power dialler to generate more calls than there are call centre staff.  This means that when the call is answered there is only silence.

Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan, said: “When I first raised the issue of corporate nuisance calls in Westminster last year it was in response to a number of complaints from my constituents.  Silent calls – malicious or not – can be scary or intimidating, especially for older people and those living on their own.

“It is the electronic equivalent of knocking on people’s front doors and running away.

‘I’m extremely pleased that the government has listened to my campaign and taken this issue.  The new measures will enable people to identify when they have received a corporate nuisance call and successfully take action against companies that persistently abuse our phonelines.”