Government clamps down on nuisance call crooks
Company bosses and firms could face fines of up to £1 million under tough new Government plans aimed at tackling nuisance calls
From Spring 2017, firm directors can each be fined up to £500,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office, if they are found to be in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
Prior to this, only businesses were liable for fines, many of which try to escape paying nuisance call penalties by declaring bankruptcy - only to open up again under a different name. But in a move to tackle this issue, Government is providing the ICO with powers to hold company directors directly responsible.
Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said:
Nuisance callers are a blight on society, causing significant distress to elderly and vulnerable people. We have been clear that we will not stand for this continued harassment, and this latest amendment to the law will strike another blow to those businesses and company bosses responsible.
This tough new stance is just one of a number of measures introduced by Government in its ongoing campaign against nuisance callers and work to better protect the personal data of UK citizens. These have included forcing companies to display their caller ID and working with Trading Standards to provide call blocking devices to vulnerable members of society.
Read Matt Hancock’s blog: #NoNuisance: Making directors pay
Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said:
The people running nuisance call companies have little regard for the anxiety and upset they cause all in the name of turning a fast profit.
We are inundated with complaints from people who are left shaken and distressed by the intrusion on their daily lives.
We’re quick to fine the companies responsible, but we’ve been speaking to the government about going further than that because we must do all we can to help protect people from these calls.
Making directors responsible will stop them ducking away from fines by putting their company into liquidation. It will stop them leaving by the back door as the regulator comes through the front door.
To date, the ICO has issued fines totalling almost £3.7million to companies behind nuisance marketing. And this year alone, the ICO has fined firms responsible for more than 70 million calls and nearly 8 million spam text messages.
More than 114,000 nuisance calls and texts have been reported to ICO this year.
Alex Neill, Which? Managing Director of Home & Legal services, said:
This is a massive victory for the hundreds of thousands of people who supported our Nuisance Calls campaign. It’s good to see the Government has listened to consumers and will be introducing new rules to hold company directors to account. This legislation will stop rogues dodging fines for bombarding consumers with nuisance calls and side-stepping the rules by closing one business and re-establishing a new one.
Notes for editors
- Government will be amending the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations legislation to make directors liable for nuisance call fines
- ICO will consider the level of fine based on evidence - (whether it applies to a company, director, or both)
- If a firm has multiple directors, each could be liable for a fine
- The measure will come into force from Spring 2017
- The figure relating to 114,000 nuisance calls and texts relates to the period 1 January to 30 September
Report a nuisance call
Reporting a nuisance call is simple - visit the ICO website - www.ico.org.uk or call its helpline - 0303 123 1113 - and they will take it from there.