Cold calling businesses: TPS and CTPS screening

Before making live marketing calls to businesses, screen your list against both the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS), and against your own do-not-call list. Both rules come from PECR.

What TPS and CTPS are

• TPS is the register where individuals, including sole traders and some partnerships, record that they do not want marketing calls.
• CTPS is the equivalent for companies, some partnerships and government bodies.

Because a business can be on either register, the ICO says to screen against both.

The basic rule

You can make live marketing calls to a business if it has not objected to your calls in the past, which includes not being registered with the relevant service, and you are not marketing claims management services. If you hold consent from the person, the register does not stop you. Automated (recorded) marketing calls are different: they always need consent.

While you are on the call

• Say who is calling, and give contact details if asked.
• Let your number, or an alternative contact number, be displayed to the person you call.
• If someone asks you to stop, record it and never call them again for marketing.

Practical steps

1. Build your call list from companies you can lawfully call.
2. Screen it against TPS and CTPS before each campaign, not once a year, because registrations change.
3. Screen against your own suppression list.
4. Keep a record of when you screened.

NewcoHunter only shows phone numbers where we have verified they belong to the company, and most new companies have none. See contact details.

Official guidance

• ICO: telephone marketing
• Telephone Preference Service

General guidance, not legal advice. Last reviewed October 2026.