Petition Prevent businesses from withholding their telephone number

Cold callers are an acknowledged nuisance to people.

Require all businesses, including charities, to have an identifiable number that can be obtained from a 1471 type service in order to assist the Information Commissioner's Office and OFCOM in their investigations of complaints.

Require businesses to staff this number during normal opening hours.

For calls on behalf of UK businesses originating from international call centres, make it a requirement that this number be present for a UK office.

For organisations making in excess of 5000 calls per month make this number a low cost local rate number.

For organisations making in excess of 25000 calls per month make this number a free to call number.

Ensure these "from" numbers are registered with an ICO/OFCOM list which is shared with all telephone providers.

Require all telephone providers to separately itemise calls to these numbers so customers can prove they called and asked to be removed from lists.