Telemarketing boss campaigns for review of TPS fundraising calls

LONDON - The chief executive of a telephone fundraising company has called on the charity sector to ask the government to relax rules forbidding making fundraising calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service.

Hugh McCaw of Relationship Marketing claims there was a "miscarriage of justice" for charities in the late 1990s when plans for the TPS were drawn up.

He wants the government to rethink its decision not to give charities special status in the TPS system.

That decision meant that fundraising calls, like commercial telemarketing calls, are prohibited to any member of the public registered with the TPS, while market research calls are allowed.

The percentage of UK households registered with the TPS has risen 60%, shrinking the pool that companies such as Relationship Marketing can fish in.

McCaw believes the government may have sympathy for his view because the Department of Trade and Industry did initially favour allowing people to opt out of receiving commercial cold calls and then opt back in to receive charity cold calls.

The DTI then abandoned the idea.

McCaw said: "The fundraising sector now needs to appeal against that decision.

"We must go back to the government and Information Commissioner's Office and ask once again for a separate category for charities in the TPS."

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