Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS): A Complete Guide for UK Businesses

Cold calling businesses in the UK isn't simply a case of finding a company telephone number and picking up the phone.

Businesses can register their telephone numbers with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) to indicate that they do not want to receive unsolicited live sales and marketing calls.

If you're running B2B telemarketing campaigns, understanding the CTPS — and screening your calling data correctly — should therefore be an important part of your campaign preparation.

There is another important point that often gets missed:

Checking CTPS alone may not be enough for a B2B calling campaign.

Some businesses, including sole traders and certain partnerships, are treated as individual rather than corporate subscribers. Their numbers may therefore appear on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) rather than the CTPS.

This guide explains what CTPS is, who can register, how CTPS differs from TPS, when businesses need to screen their data and what a sensible telephone-marketing compliance workflow looks like.

CTPS in 30 seconds

The key points are:

• CTPS stands for Corporate Telephone Preference Service.

• It is the UK's central opt-out register for corporate subscribers that do not want unsolicited live sales and marketing calls.

• It covers organisations including limited companies, PLCs, LLPs, schools, hospitals, government departments and other public bodies.

• CTPS registration takes 28 days to become fully effective.

• Corporate CTPS registrations need to be renewed annually.

• Businesses making live B2B marketing calls need to screen against CTPS where applicable.

• B2B calling lists should generally be checked against both CTPS and TPS.

• You must also respect your own internal Do Not Call or suppression list.

• A number being absent from CTPS does not automatically mean every type of call is lawful.

What is the Corporate Telephone Preference Service?

The Corporate Telephone Preference Service, usually shortened to CTPS, is a central register allowing corporate organisations to record that they do not wish to receive unsolicited sales and marketing telephone calls.

It is the business-focused equivalent of the Telephone Preference Service.

A company can register its landline or mobile telephone numbers with the CTPS. Once the registration has taken effect, organisations making unsolicited live marketing calls generally must not call those registered numbers unless an applicable exception exists, such as relevant consent.

For companies conducting outbound sales activity, CTPS screening is therefore about more than reducing complaints. It forms part of complying with the UK's rules governing telephone marketing.

What does CTPS stand for?

CTPS stands for:

Corporate Telephone Preference Service

The important word is corporate.

CTPS isn't simply a separate register for any telephone number being used for work.

Which preference register applies depends on the type of subscriber associated with the telephone number.

That distinction becomes particularly important when calling small businesses.

Who can register with CTPS?

The Corporate Telephone Preference Service is designed for corporate subscribers.

Examples include:

• limited companies

• public limited companies

• limited liability partnerships

• Scottish partnerships

• schools

• hospitals

• government departments and agencies

• certain other public bodies

A corporate organisation can register both landline and mobile telephone numbers.

That means you should not assume that a mobile number belonging to a company employee cannot appear on CTPS.

What about sole traders?

This is one of the most important distinctions for B2B marketers.

A sole trader is a business, but for the purposes of these telephone-marketing rules they are not treated in the same way as a limited company.

Sole traders are generally treated as individual subscribers.

That means their telephone numbers may be registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) rather than CTPS.

Some types of partnerships are also treated as individual subscribers.

As a result, a database containing only business leads can still contain telephone numbers protected by TPS.

This is why checking a B2B database against CTPS alone can leave a significant gap.

CTPS vs TPS: what's the difference?

CTPS and TPS perform similar functions, but they apply to different categories of subscriber.

Register	Primarily covers
TPS	Individuals, sole traders and certain partnerships
CTPS	Companies and other corporate subscribers

For example:

ABC Manufacturing Ltd

A telephone number subscribed to by the limited company may fall within CTPS.

John Smith, self-employed electrician

John may be operating entirely as a business, but as a sole trader his number falls within the category of individual subscriber and may therefore be on TPS.

This is why asking whether your campaign is "B2B or B2C" isn't enough to determine which register you need to check.

You need to consider the type of subscriber behind the telephone number.

Do B2B companies need to check both TPS and CTPS?

In many cases, yes.

This is one of the most useful rules for B2B telemarketers to understand.

A typical B2B database might contain:

• limited-company switchboards

• company direct-dial numbers

• employee mobile numbers

• sole traders

• partnerships

• consultants

• freelancers

• small-business owners

Some of those numbers may fall within CTPS and others within TPS.

For that reason, businesses making B2B marketing calls should generally screen calling lists against both the TPS and CTPS registers, as well as their own internal suppression records.

Data Soap allows businesses to run TPS and CTPS screening together so the distinction does not need to become a manual data-processing exercise.

Is CTPS screening a legal requirement?

If you're making unsolicited live direct-marketing calls, the preference registers need to form part of your compliance process.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations — commonly known as PECR — contain rules governing telephone marketing in the UK.

For most live marketing calls, you should not call a number that is registered with TPS or CTPS unless you have the appropriate permission to make that marketing call.

You must also respect people or businesses that have previously told your organisation that they don't want your marketing calls.

That means simply checking CTPS isn't the whole process.

A compliant calling workflow should also consider your organisation's own opt-outs and Do Not Call records.

How often do you need to check CTPS?

Telephone preference registrations change.

The official preference-service data is updated regularly, and organisations carrying out unsolicited telephone marketing should ensure their calling lists are screened against sufficiently current TPS and CTPS data.

The commonly applied maximum screening interval is 28 days.

That means a list you checked several months ago should not simply be assumed to remain safe to call.

In practice, many organisations screen considerably more frequently - particularly where data is being continuously added to a CRM or dialler.

With automated validation, it is possible to make suppression checking part of the workflow rather than treating it as an occasional database-cleaning project.

Does CTPS registration take effect immediately?

No.

A number must have been registered for 28 days before its CTPS registration becomes fully effective.

This gives organisations making marketing calls time to update and screen their databases.

Businesses registering their own numbers should therefore not expect registration to stop every marketing call immediately.

Does CTPS registration expire?

This is another difference worth knowing.

Corporate CTPS registrations need to be renewed annually.

The Corporate Telephone Preference Service contacts registered organisations as the renewal date approaches so that they can confirm which numbers should remain registered.

This differs from ordinary TPS registration for residential numbers and sole traders, which does not normally require annual renewal.

Can you call a company that is registered with CTPS?

Being on CTPS represents a general objection to unsolicited live marketing calls.

However, CTPS does not mean that absolutely no telephone call can ever be made to the organisation.

For example, the rules distinguish between unsolicited marketing calls and other types of communication.

A genuine service call isn't automatically a direct-marketing call merely because it is made by a commercial organisation.

Likewise, a customer may specifically ask you to call them about a product or service.

But adding promotional content to what appears to be a service call can turn the communication into direct marketing.

The nature and purpose of the call therefore matter.

Where you're relying on consent or another exception to call a CTPS-registered number, you should be confident that your records support that decision.

What counts as a marketing call?

Direct marketing is broader than many organisations realise.

A call may constitute direct marketing if its purpose includes:

• advertising products

• selling services

• promoting an organisation

• fundraising

• encouraging further purchases

• campaigning

A call doesn't stop being marketing simply because it is made to another business.

The rules on live marketing calls protect both individual and corporate subscribers.

Genuine market-research calls can be different, but organisations should be careful about disguising lead generation or sales activity as research.

If a supposed research call contains promotional content or is being used to obtain details for later marketing, it may fall within direct marketing rules.

What if a business has already told us not to call?

Don't call them for marketing.

CTPS and TPS are not substitutes for your own suppression records.

If a company or individual tells your business that they do not want further marketing calls, you should record that objection and make sure future campaigns respect it.

This is why an internal Do Not Call (DNC) list is important.

A telephone number may not appear on TPS or CTPS but still be inappropriate for your organisation to call because the subscriber has directly objected to receiving marketing from you.

A sensible suppression process therefore looks at:

TPS + CTPS + your own DNC list

rather than relying on a preference-register check alone.

What is a CTPS checker?

A CTPS checker compares the telephone numbers in your database or calling campaign against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service register.

The result allows you to identify numbers that have been registered as not wishing to receive unsolicited marketing calls.

Instead of manually searching numbers one at a time, businesses can screen entire lists in bulk or integrate preference checking into their systems using an API.

For a B2B campaign, the more useful solution is normally a combined TPS and CTPS checker, because business databases can contain both corporate and individual subscribers.

Data Soap's TPS, CTPS & DNC screening service checks telephone numbers against both preference registers and can also be combined with your own internal Do Not Call suppression process.

Why check both landlines and mobile numbers?

A common misconception is that preference-service screening only applies to traditional office landlines.

It doesn't.

Mobile telephone numbers can also be registered with the preference services.

This is increasingly important because modern B2B databases often contain direct mobile numbers for:

• directors

• sales contacts

• business owners

• procurement managers

• consultants

• tradespeople

• other decision-makers

You should therefore screen the numbers you intend to call rather than assuming that a particular type of number doesn't require checking.

Can you cold call businesses in the UK?

For many types of live B2B marketing call, unsolicited calling is not completely prohibited.

But that doesn't mean you can call every business number you find.

For most ordinary live marketing campaigns, you need to consider whether:

1. the number appears on CTPS;

2. the number appears on TPS;

3. the subscriber has previously objected to calls from your organisation;

4. special restrictions apply to the product or service you're promoting;

5. the call complies with the other applicable PECR requirements.

There are also stricter rules for some categories of telephone marketing.

For example, claims-management and pension-related calls are subject to additional restrictions.

So the answer to "Can I cold call businesses?" is not simply yes or no.

The better question is:

Does this particular call comply with the rules that apply to this subscriber, telephone number, campaign and product?

Live calls vs automated marketing calls

There is an important distinction between a live salesperson making a telephone call and an automated system playing a recorded marketing message.

The rules for automated marketing calls are significantly stricter.

Specific consent is generally required before making automated marketing calls.

This means that checking a number against CTPS and finding that it isn't registered does not by itself give you permission to send an automated marketing call.

CTPS screening should therefore be understood in the context of live direct-marketing calls, rather than being treated as universal permission for every type of telephone marketing.

What information must you provide on a marketing call?

Preference screening isn't your only responsibility when conducting live marketing calls.

Businesses making live marketing calls must also identify themselves appropriately.

Among other requirements, callers should:

• say who is calling

• allow the calling number, or an alternative contact number, to be displayed

• provide appropriate contact information if requested

Your telemarketing process therefore needs to cover both who you call and how the call itself is conducted.

CTPS screening and GDPR: are they the same thing?

No.

CTPS screening relates primarily to rules governing direct telephone marketing under PECR.

UK GDPR governs the processing of personal data.

The two regimes can interact, particularly where your B2B database contains information relating to identifiable individuals, but completing a CTPS check does not make an entire campaign "GDPR compliant".

Likewise, having a lawful basis to process someone's personal information does not automatically allow you to ignore TPS or CTPS registration.

Think of preference-service screening as one component of a wider direct-marketing compliance process.

What happens if you call a CTPS-registered number?

Calling numbers registered with CTPS in breach of the applicable rules can lead to complaints and regulatory action.

The Information Commissioner's Office is responsible for enforcing PECR.

Following changes introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the ICO's enforcement powers under PECR were strengthened substantially, including the potential for penalties of up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide annual turnover for certain infringements.

The precise outcome of any breach depends on the circumstances.

But the compliance argument for screening is straightforward: identifying suppressed numbers before they enter the dialler is considerably easier than dealing with complaints or regulatory issues afterwards.

Do you need CTPS if you bought the data from someone else?

Buying or licensing marketing data does not remove your own responsibility for how you use it.

A supplier telling you that a database is "compliant" should not automatically be treated as a permanent guarantee that every number remains suitable to call.

Preference-service registrations can change.

Customers can also opt out directly from your organisation.

Before starting a campaign, the business actually making the calls should be satisfied that the telephone data has been screened appropriately and that other relevant requirements have been met.

This is one reason to screen data close to the point of use rather than relying indefinitely on a check performed by somebody else.

Do you need to screen existing customers against CTPS?

An existing business relationship does not automatically mean all future marketing calls are permitted.

Service communications and marketing communications are not necessarily the same thing.

If the purpose of the call is direct marketing, you need to consider the marketing-call rules that apply.

Don't assume that the word customer provides a blanket exemption from CTPS, TPS or previous objections.

Where you believe you have specific consent to make marketing calls, keep appropriate records so you can demonstrate the basis on which the call was made.

A sensible B2B calling compliance workflow

For businesses operating outbound telephone campaigns, screening can be built into a repeatable process.

1. Prepare and standardise your numbers

Make sure telephone numbers are correctly formatted and remove obvious duplicates or unusable records.

2. Screen against TPS

This catches individual subscribers, including consumers, sole traders and certain partnerships.

3. Screen against CTPS

This identifies corporate subscribers that have registered an objection to unsolicited live marketing calls.

4. Apply your own Do Not Call list

Remove anyone who has directly told your organisation that they do not wish to receive further marketing calls.

5. Consider any campaign-specific restrictions

Certain products and services have stricter telephone-marketing rules.

Do not assume passing a TPS/CTPS check overrides these restrictions.

6. Record when the screening occurred

Keeping a screening date provides an audit trail and allows you to identify lists that may need checking again.

7. Screen newly added data

If leads enter your CRM continuously, consider screening at import or before records reach the dialler rather than waiting for occasional manual database cleans.

Common CTPS mistakes

Checking CTPS but not TPS for B2B data

This is probably the biggest mistake.

Your B2B database may contain sole traders and other individual subscribers whose numbers belong on TPS rather than CTPS.

Check both.

Assuming every business number can be cold called

A business number is still subject to the applicable telephone-marketing rules.

Being published on a website, directory or Companies House-related data source doesn't automatically mean the subscriber wants unsolicited marketing calls.

Forgetting your internal Do Not Call list

A number does not have to appear on CTPS for you to need to suppress it.

Direct objections made to your own organisation must also be respected.

Treating old screening results as permanent

Preference-service registrations change.

A number that passed your screening historically may subsequently be registered.

Assuming bought data has already been checked

Even if a data provider performed screening, you need to know when that check occurred and whether the data remains appropriate for your campaign.

Assuming CTPS covers automated calls

Automated marketing calls are subject to stricter consent requirements.

A clean CTPS result is not permission to send automated recorded marketing messages.

Assuming CTPS equals GDPR compliance

CTPS, PECR and UK GDPR address related but distinct issues.

No single database check makes an entire marketing campaign compliant.

Corporate Telephone Preference Service FAQs

What does CTPS stand for?

CTPS stands for Corporate Telephone Preference Service.

What is the CTPS?

It is the UK's central opt-out register for corporate subscribers that do not wish to receive unsolicited live sales and marketing calls.

Is CTPS only for landlines?

No. Mobile as well as landline telephone numbers can be registered.

Are sole traders covered by CTPS?

Generally no. Sole traders are treated as individual subscribers and use TPS instead.

Do limited companies use CTPS?

Yes. Limited companies are corporate subscribers and can register their telephone numbers with CTPS.

Do I need to check TPS as well as CTPS for B2B calls?

In many cases, yes. B2B data can include both corporate subscribers covered by CTPS and individual subscribers such as sole traders covered by TPS.

How long does CTPS registration take?

Registration becomes fully effective after 28 days.

Does CTPS registration need to be renewed?

Yes. Corporate CTPS registrations are renewed annually.

How often should businesses screen their calling data?

Preference-service data should be kept current. Organisations conducting unsolicited telephone marketing should not rely indefinitely on old screening results, with 28 days being the important maximum interval associated with preference-service screening.

Can I call a CTPS number if I have consent?

There are circumstances where relevant consent can permit marketing calls to numbers on the preference registers. You should be confident that the consent applies to your organisation and the type of marketing call you're making and retain appropriate evidence.

Does being absent from CTPS mean a number is safe to call?

Not necessarily.

The number could be on TPS, the person or organisation may previously have opted out directly from your business, or additional campaign-specific restrictions may apply.

Does CTPS apply to emails?

No. CTPS relates to telephone marketing. Different PECR rules apply to electronic mail such as email and SMS.

Who enforces CTPS rules?

The Information Commissioner's Office enforces the relevant PECR telephone-marketing rules.

Check your B2B calling data before you dial

A successful B2B campaign isn't just about finding more telephone numbers.

It's about knowing which numbers should actually enter your dialler.

Data Soap can screen UK telephone data against TPS and CTPS together, helping businesses identify preference-service registrations before campaigns begin. You can also incorporate your own Do Not Call suppression data into the process.

Rather than assuming every "business number" is available for marketing, screen your campaign data before you call.

Check your telephone data with Data Soap's TPS, CTPS & DNC screening service.