The Petition of residents of the Plymouth Moor View constituency and others,
Declares that the Petitioners would like the Government to provide additional powers to the Information Commissioner to stop the scourge of nuisance texts and phone calls; further declares that these calls are unsolicited but can result in the recipient being inconvenienced and charged when abroad.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to review the current law on cold and marketing calls and texts.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Alison Seabeck, Official Report, 16 December 2014; Vol. 589, c. 1375 .]
[P001413]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport:
Tackling nuisance calls is a priority for the Government. We have taken steps to tackle the problem through publication of the first ever Nuisance Calls Action Plan on 30 March 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nuisance-calls-action-plan-unveiled. This set out in detail our achievements to date, work underway and proposed actions for the future, which included both legislative and non-legislative measures.
This includes consulting between 25 October and 6 December 2014 on our proposal to lower or remove the legal threshold to improve the ability of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to take more enforcement action, including issuing monetary penalties. The Government’s Response to this consultation was published on 25 February confirming we would be removing the legal threshold to make it effective for 6 April 2015.
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) 2003, the ICO has responsibility for considering complaints about unsolicited direct marketing nuisance calls and text messages and can issue a substantive monetary penalty of up to £500,000 to any organisation for breaching the regulations. Since January 2012, the ICO has taken enforcement action against nine companies with monetary penalties totalling £815,000 being issued for calls and text messages and further monetary penalties are likely to be issued after we lower or remove the legal threshold for the ICO. Further details about the enforcement action taken to date by the ICO can be viewed at: http://ico.org.uk/enforcement/action/texts. The ICO’s approach to regulation is to follow good regulatory principles taking a proportionate approach using strong enforcement action coupled with effective education and engagement with organisations that breach the regulations.
Additionally, the Government have responded to the six Which? led Taskforce recommendations for Government that were set out in their report of 8 December 2014. The Taskforce considered consent and lead generation issues within the direct marketing industry and started its work in late May holding six meetings. Its membership included Ofcom, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Direct Marketing Association, Call Credit, Barclaycard, the Customer Contact Association, the Ministry of Justice and the Communications Consumer Panel.
The Government will also be consulting on bringing forward secondary legislation to amend the PECR and require marketing callers to provide their Calling Line Identification (CLI). This will enable consumers to determine who is calling them and therefore allow such calls to be reported more easily.
We will continue in our efforts to combat this menace by working with regulators, industry and consumer groups including through my roundtable meetings.