Is there a Do Not Call register in the UK? Yes — it's called the TPS
If you've searched for a 'national do not call registry UK' or tried donotcall.gov and got nowhere, you haven't done anything wrong — you've just been given American directions. The United States has the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov. The United Kingdom has its own equivalent, and it's called the Telephone Preference Service, or TPS. It's free, it's the only official UK do not call list, and it works under the authority of the Information Commissioner's Office. Here's exactly how to join it, what it stops, what it doesn't, and what to do when someone rings you anyway.
First, clearing up the donotcall.gov confusion
'Do not call registry UK', 'donotcall.gov uk', 'no call list uk' — these searches all come from the same place. American consumer advice travels far, and the phrase 'National Do Not Call Registry' is so familiar that people assume every country runs one under that name. Britain doesn't. There is no gov.uk page where you add yourself to a 'do not call registry', and donotcall.gov is a United States government service that will do nothing whatsoever for a UK number.
The UK equivalent is the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), a register of numbers that do not wish to receive unsolicited live sales and marketing calls. It's run as a central opt-out register and its legal weight comes from the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, known as PECR, which the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) enforces. There's a sister register for business lines called the Corporate TPS, or CTPS, which covers company landlines, limited-company numbers and partnership lines. If you're registering a work number rather than a personal one, CTPS is the one you want.
How to register on the TPS (and how long it takes)
Registering is straightforward and completely free. Go to the official site, tpsonline.org.uk, and enter the number you want to protect along with an email address for confirmation. You can register a landline or a mobile — both are covered by the same service, and there's no limit that stops you registering the household landline and everyone's mobiles separately. You can also register by phone on 0345 070 0707, or by texting 'TPS' followed by your email address to 85095.
Once you're on, allow 28 days for the registration to take full effect. That delay isn't red tape for its own sake: organisations are required to screen their calling lists against the TPS file, and the 28 days gives them a window to pick up your number in their next screening cycle. So don't panic if a sales call lands the following week — it usually means the caller's list was compiled before you joined. Your registration doesn't expire, and it stays attached to the number rather than to you, which matters if you ever change numbers: a new number needs registering again.
Never pay, and how to check a number is already on the list
The TPS costs nothing. Not to join, not to stay on it, not ever. There are third-party sites and cold-callers who offer to 'register you' or to 'renew your TPS protection' for a fee — some of them will even ring you claiming your registration has lapsed and needs paying for. It hasn't, and it doesn't. That call is itself a scam, and a fairly common one aimed at older people. If anyone asks for card details in connection with the TPS, hang up.
If you want to confirm a number is registered, the TPS site has a number checker: enter the number and it will tell you whether it's on the register. It's the same tool businesses use in reverse, and it's worth running for an elderly relative's landline if you're not sure whether anyone ever registered it. One caveat that catches people out: the checker tells you the number's status on the list — it is not a lookup for identifying who has been calling you. There is no official UK register that reveals the owner of a marketing number.
What the TPS covers — and the gaps it can't close
The TPS covers unsolicited live marketing and sales calls made to your number by organisations. Once you're registered, it's generally unlawful for a UK organisation to make that kind of call to you, and the ICO can and does fine companies that ignore the register. That's real protection, and it visibly reduces the volume of legitimate cold-calling — double glazing, solar panels, energy switching, insurance renewals.
The gaps matter just as much. The TPS does not stop criminals: fraudsters running bank impersonation or refund scams are already breaking the law and simply don't screen against a register. It has no reach over calls placed from outside the UK, which is where a large share of scam traffic originates. It doesn't cover market research or genuine surveys, which aren't classed as marketing, nor charity fundraising calls in every circumstance, nor debt collection, nor service and appointment calls from companies you already deal with. Silent and abandoned calls from predictive diallers fall under separate Ofcom rules rather than the TPS. And crucially, it doesn't override consent: if you ticked a box — or failed to untick one — when buying something online, that company may still lawfully ring you, because you gave them permission. Automated recorded-message calls need your specific prior consent under PECR regardless of TPS status.
How to report a violation of the do not call list
If you're registered and a marketing call still comes through 28 days later, you can report it. The complaint route in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office, which handles nuisance-call reporting through ico.org.uk — you'll be asked for the number that called, the date and time, and the name of the organisation if they gave one. You can report the same caller to the TPS too, but the ICO is the body with enforcement powers, so that's the report that carries weight.
Evidence is what turns a complaint into action. Keep a short log: date, time, the number displayed, what they were selling, and whether you asked them to stop. Regulators act on volume and patterns, so a handful of dated entries about the same company is far more useful than a single 'they keep ringing me'. For spam text messages, there's a separate and easier route — forward the message to 7726 (it spells SPAM on the keypad), free of charge, and your mobile network can investigate and block the source. If a call was an outright fraud attempt rather than a marketing breach, report that to Action Fraud instead, and if you've moved money, ring 159 to reach your bank's fraud team directly.
Why the TPS alone isn't enough any more
The honest position is this: the TPS was designed for a world where nuisance calls came from identifiable British companies with a list to screen. That world still exists, and the register handles it well. But the calls that bother people most in 2026 — spoofed bank fraud teams, recorded 'your account has been compromised' robots, one-ring callbacks from abroad, silent dialler calls — sit entirely outside what a legal opt-out register can touch. Registering is worth doing on day one. Expecting it to solve the problem on its own will leave you disappointed.
That's the gap on-device filtering fills. Allociao is a free Android app that screens incoming calls against known nuisance and suspicious number ranges and hangs up on them before your phone disturbs you — it picks up precisely where the TPS stops, because it doesn't care whether the caller respects the law. There are no ads, no account to create, and the filtering happens entirely on your handset, so nothing about your calls is sent to a server. Your saved contacts always ring through. Do both: register with the TPS to switch off the legitimate marketers, and let a filter handle the ones who were never going to check a register in the first place.
FAQ
Is there a national do not call registry in the UK?
Yes, but it isn't called that. The UK's do not call list is the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) at tpsonline.org.uk. 'National Do Not Call Registry' and donotcall.gov are American — they don't apply to UK numbers.
How much does it cost to join the UK do not call list?
Nothing. The TPS is free to join and free to stay on, for both landlines and mobiles. Anyone charging you a fee to register or 'renew' your TPS entry is running a scam.
How long does the TPS take to work?
Around 28 days. Organisations screen their calling lists against the register periodically, so a few calls may still arrive during that window. If they continue afterwards, you can report them.
How do I check if a number is on the TPS?
Use the number checker on tpsonline.org.uk — enter the number and it will confirm whether it's registered. It won't tell you who a nuisance caller is; no UK register offers that.
How do I report a violation of the do not call list?
Report nuisance marketing calls to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, with the number, date and time. Forward spam texts to 7726 free, and report actual fraud to Action Fraud.
Does the TPS stop scam calls?
No. It stops legitimate UK organisations from cold-calling you, but criminals and overseas callers ignore it entirely. You'll need call filtering on the handset for those.
Sources
Related guides
The do-not-call registers for the UK, Ireland and beyond
The official opt-out registers for marketing calls in the UK (TPS) and Ireland (NDD), plus how to register, whether they work, and notes for other countries.
How to block nuisance and spam calls in the UK and Ireland
Practical ways to stop cold callers and spam texts in the UK and Ireland: do-not-call registers, network call protection, phone settings and free apps.
Robocalls: recognising automated messages and cutting them off
Recorded messages, 'press 1 to continue' robots, fake accident-claim calls: how to recognise automated robocalls and shut them down in the UK and Ireland.