Stay compliant when calling and messaging

Screen numbers against the TPS register, respect consent and quiet hours, protect people who may be vulnerable, limit what the agent may do and test it regularly.

4 min read Updated October 27, 2026

By the end of this guide you'll screen phone numbers, record consent properly, avoid contacting people at night, look after people who may be vulnerable, and test your agent on a schedule.

You'll need

  • The owner or manager role for settings, policies, check schedules, the activity log and clearing vulnerability flags.
  • Anyone in the team can record that someone asked to be called and update consent on a lead.

Screen numbers against the TPS register

  1. Open Settings and the Leads tab.
  2. Check Screen lead phone numbers against the TPS register is on. It is by default. Every lead's UK number is checked, then rechecked every 28 days.
  3. When a number is registered and the person hasn't asked you to call, the lead shows a TPS warning, calls your team schedules to it are held, and you're asked to confirm before calling from the lead's page. A number not checked yet shows Check now.

Record "They've asked us to call"

If a registered person asks for a call, open their lead. Under the TPS warning, open They've asked us to call, say how they asked (for example "asked on the phone to be called back Friday") and press Record it. That's saved as their consent to calls. It can't be recorded for someone who has asked not to be called.

Consent and opt-outs

  1. On a lead, the What we know tab shows consent for each kind of message (About their enquiry, Marketing) on each channel: Yes, Said no, Opted out or Not asked. Hover one to see when and how they said it.
  2. When someone tells you, open Record what they told you about being contacted. Choose They agreed to or They don't want, what it's for and the channels, then press Record. A yes needs a note of how and when they said it.
  3. People can also opt out themselves: the unsubscribe link in your emails, their mail app's Unsubscribe button, or replying STOP to a text or WhatsApp. Consent history on the lead shows every answer and where it came from.
  4. Every message is checked before it goes. Marketing only goes where they've agreed or a soft opt-in applies, and the message preview and outreach show who can't be reached and why.
  5. Owners and managers set what people are asked and what their answers allow on Consent.

Quiet hours

  1. In Settings, open the Channels tab and Outreach quiet hours. The default is 21:00-08:00 in your organisation's timezone. Set both times the same to turn it off.
  2. During quiet hours, bulk messages wait until morning, scheduled callbacks and follow-up messages aren't sent, and calls from a lead's page are refused. A single message can still go, after a warning.

People who may be vulnerable

When a conversation suggests someone may be vulnerable, their lead shows a Care badge. They're left out of bulk messages, outreach streams and workflows, and the agent takes extra care. Their owner (or the managers) get A lead may be vulnerable. The leads list filter Only people who may be vulnerable finds them all.

Once a manager has reviewed the conversation, they can open the link to clear the flag in the banner on the lead, give a reason and press Clear flag. The reason is kept on the timeline and in the activity log.

Limit what the agent may do

  1. Browse Policy rules. Delivery and action rules with settings, such as payment limits, can be turned on for your organisation: press Configure and set them under Org defaults.
  2. In Policies, press New policy, choose the Screening mode, tick the rules and press Create policy.
  3. Attach it to a new version of your agent and Promote it. A live agent takes later changes to your rules when you promote it again, or when you press Apply to live agents now on Policy rules.

Test the agent on a schedule

  1. You need a check group first: see Check groups.
  2. In Schedules, press New schedule. Choose the group, the agent, Track production, a channel and a daily, weekly or monthly cadence, then Create schedule.
  3. Results appear in Check runs, and you're alerted if questions that used to pass start failing.

Check it worked

  • The activity log shows setting changes, recorded consent and cleared flags. Filter by Crm or Org.
  • Insights › Unsubscribes shows who opted out, how, and after which message.
  • Decisions shows what your policies allowed, held or denied.

More detail: Consent, TPS and vulnerable customers and Check schedules.

Or ask the assistant: it can do these steps for you, asking before each change.

Using Subcontext?

Sign in and the assistant can do these steps for you. New here? We'll show you around.

Sign in Talk to Subcontext