The move comes as government and industry looks to develop initiatives to chop the quantity of nuisance calls and spam text messages. This includes the introduction of a kitemark scheme that aims to make sure standards for telemarketers, in addition to legislative measures being considered by the dept for Culture, Media and Sport.

Stepchange claims the difficulty of nuisance calls is “out of hand”, with 39.6 million people believing more should be done to guard consumers from telemarketers. Some 26.3 million claim they’ve been contacted by marketers selling high-cost credit which include payday loans and 31.3 million say they’ve been contacted by fee-charging debt management companies.

The charity is asking for several changes, including increased power for regulators, a ban on unsolicited calls offering high-risk credit products and controls on aggressive debt collection. It also wants control of private data handed back to the shopper in order that they know who has their data and might stop it being passed to firms they don’t trust.

Direct marketing chiefs at the moment are trying to reassure the general public over telemarketing, with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) set to launch the accreditation scheme, dubbed TPS Assured after self-regulatory body the phone Preference Service, on Thursday (31 October). It is going to be awarded to companies that demonstrate they’re compliant with the necessities of the TPS.

The TPS is administered by the DMA under license from Ofcom and enforced by the tips Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It has almost 18 million people registered which have asked to be faraway from prospect lists for telemarketers.

The DMA hopes the accreditation scheme will repair a number of the reputational damage inflicted on telemarketers, especially after the ICO and Ofcom revealed they’re reviewing the role and effectiveness of TPS. a contemporary study by consumer watchdog Which? found that those registered for the service receive more nuisance calls than people who are usually not.