Glossary
What is Telephone Preference Service (TPS)?
The Telephone Preference Service is the UK register of landline and mobile numbers whose owners don't want unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It covers calls only, not texts.
The register exists under regulation 26 of PECR and is kept for the purposes of regulation 21, which makes it unlawful to make unsolicited marketing calls to a listed number. Registration is free, there's a twin register for companies called the Corporate TPS (CTPS), and callers are told to screen their lists against both at least once every 28 days.
Marketing texts come under a different rule. Regulation 22 needs the person's consent, or the soft opt-in for your own customers, whether or not the number is on the TPS, so screening a list against the TPS does nothing to make a text campaign lawful. The ICO says there's no text or email version of the TPS for that reason: texts to individuals already need consent.
A letting agent in Reading that both calls and texts landlords has two separate jobs: screen the call list against the TPS and CTPS, and keep consent records for everyone it texts offers to.