SILENT CALLS

Early day motion 1891, tabled 9 November 2004 by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour). Signed by 74 members.

That this House condemns the practice of computer-generated random telephone number dialling to circumvent people's preferences for telephone privacy in order to sell them goods and services by cold-calling; notes that when one call is answered, many others are automatically terminated, thus causing disturbance, annoyance and fear that silent calls are being made by individuals with evil intent; is gravely concerned at the amount of fear, suspicion and mistrust sown amongst the recipients of these silent calls; and puts the telephone marketing industry on notice that, if such calls continue to be generated, legislation must be brought forward to ban them.

Signatures by party: Labour 43, Liberal Democrat 17, Conservative 5, Labour/Co-operative 4, DUP 3, Plaid Cymru 1, UUP 1.