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Call Centre Activity

The hon. Gentleman raises a similar point to that made by the hon. Member for Solihull, who suggested that the polarity should be reversed and that people should volunteer to be called, rather than excluding themselves. I shall come to that later, but there is a method through which people can exclude themselves from being called. The hon. Lady’s analogy of people volunteering to be fished from a pool sounded a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas; I am not sure that anybody is likely to go down that road. Nevertheless, she made a valid point to which I shall return shortly. Responsible companies recognise the valuable part that their call centres play in growing business and delivering customer satisfaction. Organisations such as the Customer Contact Association are playing their part; it has set its membership ever-higher standards of skills training and quality customer care. The association is piloting for the industry a voluntary kite mark that will assist in raising standards. As has been mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North and other contributors, call centres have been criticised for the proliferation of unsolicited direct marketing telephone calls. I can certainly appreciate the nuisance and inconvenience that such calls cause. They are usually made through a computerised calling device that dials the telephone number and automatically connects to a sales agent or provides a recorded message when the call is answered. Although the machines allegedly give efficiency savings to the company, they can be very irritating to those who receive calls—especially when there is no message, as my hon. Friend said. The Government listened to complaints and took action accordingly. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, no one is allowed to make an unsolicited direct marketing call to a subscriber who has previously notified them that they do not wish to receive such calls or to someone who has been registered with the telephone preference service for at least 28 days. The telephone preference service is an industry-run opt-out scheme, operated by the Direct Marketing Association. Responsibility for the enforcement of the regulations rests with the Information Commissioner’s office and is drawn from the Data Protection Act 1998. Breaching an enforcement notice is a criminal offence subject to a substantial fine—recently raised from £5,000 to £50,000—in a magistrates court. I have heard the criticism, made by the hon. Member for Wealden, of silent calls. I shall look into his point about Ofcom’s role in monitoring and enforcing the regulations. Protection of personal data is another vital issue, and it has been raised by all speakers in the debate. Many people are rightly cautious about revealing their details to organisations, not least because of the newspaper articles and television programmes that have exposed instances of alleged malpractice by call centre staff in this country and abroad. However, wherever their operations are based, companies remain bound by the requirements of the 1998 Act, in particular that for data to be kept secure. Companies remain responsible for how data are processed overseas on their behalf, and that includes the transfer and overseas processing of the data. Companies have taken many steps to protect the security of data and many examples of good practice are followed. To monitor standards, it is also important that strong links be maintained between the UK and call centres located abroad. In March 2006, the British regulator, the Banking Code Standards Board, visited eight Indian call centres. More than 1 million inbound calls from the UK, together with other processing work, are handled each month by those centres. The review identified good standards of compliance with the banking code. Increasing integration of the international economy presents challenges and opportunities for all sectors of the UK economy. The potential impact of globalisation on the UK’s prosperity will depend critically on business response, in terms of choices businesses make about location and successfully meeting the needs of customers. That has led to the offshoring of some jobs and services, and calls for protectionism and economic patriotism, although I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North was not making that challenge in introducing the debate. Those are part of the competitive challenges facing business and the Government alike. We need to put the issue of offshoring into perspective. We want to keep jobs in the UK, but we operate today in a fiercely competitive global market, and no sector is more competitive than IT. Changing technology is a fact of life. Some call centre and other service functions have moved to India and other third countries. It is for companies to choose their investment locations; the Government cannot protect jobs by suggesting that industry operate in a certain way, and we cannot stem the tide of overseas or technological competition. However, we can aim to provide the most favourable conditions for businesses, whether they are already located here or want to locate here. In addition, we can encourage all call centres to move up the value chain.