The government has said legislation will be in place to ban cold calling before 2020.

The ban, which was previously going to be legislated for in the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill, will also include a ban on emails and text messages.

Speaking at a Work and Pensions Committee hearing today, 15 November, as part of its inquiry on the pension freedoms, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay noted the government’s intention to bring forward draft legislation early next year, and it has an ambition to have the legislation in place before 2020.

Despite this, Barclay declined to commit to a specific date on which we can expect the ban: “I’m not going to give a commitment because I think in politics people give commitments that are not met, if they give a firm date,” he said.

However, he said he hopes the Committee understand the direction of travel the government is going in, given the announcement of the ban in the Autumn Statement of 2016, which was reaffirmed this summer, in a response to the consultation on the ban.

In response to why the government is not bringing forward the legislation this year, Barclay said that the detail of how the ban will work in relation to legitimate companies who use direct marketing needs to be consulted on.

“We have made a commitment to bring forward draft legislation, but we want to get the legislation right, because there is some complexity within it[…]but I think there is an commonality of interest between the Committee and the government, across parties, that no one wants to see people being ripped off of their life savings,” Barclay said.

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