Millions of people are signed up to a system designed to stop unsolicited sales and marketing calls, but some are still receiving up to 10 calls a month, consumer group Which? says.

It said it had heard about people being called by many different companies.

Companies are legally required not to call domestic numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

The TPS is run by the Direct Marketing Association and has about 19 million people on its register. The head of the service, John Mitchison, said that it was frustrating that calls were still being made to registered users, but he stressed that the service did not have any enforcement powers.

"We hold the database of telephone numbers and we take complaints if people still receive calls," he said.

UK Companies are legally required not to call domestic numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

Note the important added qualification. Which, when international VoIP calls cost a small fraction of a penny a minute, renders the TPS an utter irrelevancy.

What should be the case is that every UK telephone service provider should be required to provide (for a small charge, I'm not being unfair to them) a service where each subscriber can block all calls apart from those they put on a whitelist. Or at least, a service where subscribers can block international, VoIP and calls which don't provide valid caller ID info. Blocking those three things would stop 99% of cold calls.

In fact, tbh, I'm genuinely surprised one of the telco's doesn't offer those kind of services now. MIllions of people would move their land line service to a provider who gave them the ability to block the majority of cold calls. Yet none of them apparently do. Another example where the idiom that 'the market always works in the customer's best interests' turns out to be utter drivel.

I think having a number which is, and has always been, ex-directory is more useful then the TPS.
Though the TPS have helped me out once, they can do nothing about call centres in other countries calling you and they can do nothing about scammers getting your number and calling you.

Many use autodiallers. They just crank through every number combination, so you'll get called regardless of how ex-directory you are.

Maybe, but I think they must use bought lists of valid numbers too. Everyone I know who's always been ex-directory seems to get less scam calls than those who's number is in the phone book.

Another example where the idiom that 'the market always works in the customer's best interests' turns out to be utter drivel.

Note the important added qualification. Which, when international VoIP calls cost a small fraction of a penny a minute, renders the TPS an utter irrelevancy.

What should be the case is that every UK telephone service provider should be required to provide (for a small charge, I'm not being unfair to them) a service where each subscriber can block all calls apart from those they put on a whitelist. Or at least, a service where subscribers can block international, VoIP and calls which don't provide valid caller ID info. Blocking those three things would stop 99% of cold calls.

In fact, tbh, I'm genuinely surprised one of the telco's doesn't offer those kind of services now. MIllions of people would move their land line service to a provider who gave them the ability to block the majority of cold calls. Yet none of them apparently do. Another example where the idiom that 'the market always works in the customer's best interests' turns out to be utter drivel.

Maybe, but I think they must use bought lists of valid numbers too. Everyone I know who's always been ex-directory seems to get less scam calls than those who's number is in the phone book.

If they blocked VOIP and international calls, I'd never get to talk to my family again.