The short answer
You can check your own number free on the TPS website (tpsonline.org.uk). Organisations screening at volume need licensed access to the register data, through a licensed file, a list-cleaning bureau, or a screening service. CRM teams can automate the check so it runs on every number change.
How to check if your number is on the TPS
If you want to know whether your own landline or mobile is on the register, the free TPS checker takes about a minute:
- Go to the TPS website at tpsonline.org.uk.
- Choose the option to check a number rather than register one.
- Enter the phone number you want to check.
- Read the result. The site tells you whether the number is registered.
Two things worth knowing about the result. First, a registration becomes legally enforceable 28 days after the number joins the register, so a number registered last Tuesday is not yet protected in the strict legal sense. Second, this checker exists so individuals can confirm their own registration; it was never meant for screening other people's numbers.
Why the free checker doesn't work for outbound teams
Everything about the free checker follows from who it was built for. It is a single-number lookup, typed by hand, so a 5,000-contact list means 5,000 visits. No record afterwards; if a complaint ever lands, the ICO works backwards from the call and asks whether your screening was reasonable, and "someone typed the numbers into a website in March" is a thin answer. And the result is only true on the day you check it. Around 28 million numbers sit on TPS and people join every day, so a hand-checked list starts going stale immediately. How quickly that staleness becomes a legal problem is the subject of how often you should re-check.
PECR regulation 21 prohibits unsolicited live marketing calls to numbers registered with TPS or CTPS, unless that specific subscriber has notified you that they consent to such calls. The ICO can fine up to £500,000 for serious breaches, and since December 2018 it can also fine company officers personally up to £500,000 where the breach happened with their consent, connivance or neglect. The free checker was built for individuals confirming one registration, not for evidencing screening at volume.
How organisations check numbers against the TPS
Organisations that screen at volume need licensed access to the register data. In practice that means one of four routes.
| Route | What you get | Where it falls short or fits |
|---|---|---|
| License the register file yourself | Raw register data under the DMA TPSL list cleaner licence, around £3,300 a year. You host it, refresh it at least every 28 days, and build your own matching. | The licence fee is the small part; the engineering around it is the real cost. I have broken that down in build vs buy. Fits firms with an in-house data team and unusual requirements. |
| One-off bureau clean | Send your list to a DMA-licensed list cleaner and it comes back with TPS and CTPS numbers flagged. | A snapshot. Accurate on the day it returns, decaying from the day after, because numbers join the register daily. Fits a single campaign on a list you will not reuse. |
| Lookup-time data tools | Some sales data and dialler platforms flag TPS status when you look a contact up or load a dial list. | Covers only the numbers that pass through that tool. Imports, manual edits and numbers already sitting in your CRM never get checked, and the verdict usually stays inside the tool rather than on your contact record. |
| Continuous CRM-side screening | Every number is screened when it enters the CRM and re-screened when it changes, with the verdict and a timestamp written back to the record. | Fits teams whose call lists live in the CRM. This is the route TPSClear takes for HubSpot; the install is free and screening runs from the moment a phone number is added or edited. |
A few specifics on the fourth route, since it is ours. TPSClear watches phone-number changes in HubSpot and writes one of four verdicts back to the contact within seconds: Safe to call, Do not call (TPS-listed), Do not call (CTPS-listed), or Not yet screened. A daily backfill sweep sits behind the real-time triggers, and a REST API covers anything outside the CRM. Register data licensing is completed during account activation, before your first screen. The mechanics are on how it works; the price is £295 a month once screening is active, billed monthly, cancel any time. The verdict tells your team where each number stands against both registers; the decision not to dial stays with you.
Checking the CTPS as well
If you call businesses, one register is not enough. CTPS is the corporate equivalent of TPS, around 3 million numbers, and regulation 21 applies to it in exactly the same way. The trap is sole traders: they are treated as individual subscribers, so a plumber or a consultant trading as a sole trader can sit on TPS, not CTPS (a limited company registers on CTPS instead). A B2B team that screens against CTPS alone walks straight past them. The full split is in TPS vs CTPS; the short version is check both, every time.
One-line conclusion
Check your own number free on the TPS website; to check anyone else's, screen through licensed register data, and run the check as close to dial-time as your tooling allows.