No, phone calls longer than 10 minutes will not be automatically recorded from 2026

Social media posts claiming that from 1st January 2026 phone calls longer than 10 minutes will be automatically recorded in the UK have been shared hundreds of thousands of times online.

The posts claim this is part of a new regulation introduced by the Home Office and approved by Ofcom, but it isn’t true.

Ofcom told us there are no such requirements on telecoms providers.

Videos circulating online claim that “all calls made from mobile or landline numbers that last more than 10 minutes will be automatically recorded and stored by your network provider” and “will be kept securely for up to 30 days after which they will be deleted unless officially requested by law enforcement or the courts”.

The videos claim this is part of a “broader strategy to combat telephone scams, organised fraud and criminal networks using encrypted or untraceable communication” according to “a leaked policy draft reported by the Guardian”.

But the Guardian told us that “this is not and never has been a Guardian article”. We have also contacted the Home Office about these claims, and will update this article if we receive a response.

The earliest version of this claim we could find was posted by a TikTok account on 17 July. We have written several fact checks about videos posted by this same account in recent weeks, including false claims that going abroad four times a year will flag you to HMRC for ‘enhanced customs monitoring’ from August and purchases over £1,000 will be automatically reported to HMRC from 2026. We have been unable to contact the account as their direct messages are turned off.

Before sharing content like this that you see on social media, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our toolkit gives you advice on how to navigate bad information online.