Nuisance Calls

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Let me begin by apologising to the House, as I will have to leave at 4 o’clock to go to a parents evening. I cannot depute that to my husband because he is in hospital this week.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Mike Crockart) on the excellent campaign he has run and on his work on the all-party group on nuisance calls, which I was pleased to support and contribute to, albeit in a minor capacity. He has done well to bring the matter to the attention of colleagues and it is also good that the Backbench Business Committee understood how many complaints Members on both sides of the House were receiving.

The report by the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport is also extremely useful and I congratulate the Chair of the Committee, the hon. Member for Maldon (Mr Whittingdale). Outside this House, excellent work has been done by Which?, by David Hickson and by Ofcom. We debated the issue about a year ago in Westminster Hall, but this afternoon’s debate is better informed because of all the work that has been done.

The Chair of the Select Committee is, of course, right that marketing calls are a necessary means of reaching consumers in the modern world, but the number of nuisance calls has exploded and seems to be up threefold since 2010. The calls range from irritating spam texts to distressing hard-sell calls for so-called services such as payday loans. As Mr Speaker might say, the public do not like it. Which? has secured 109,000 signatures in support of its campaign. Such calls are the No. 1 complaint received by Ofcom and, as hon. Members have said, are a particular issue for pensioners.

Ofcom’s survey found that 80% of people were affected by the problem and more than half the people who sign up to the Telephone Preference Service continue to receive nuisance calls. That brings into question the effectiveness of the TPS. This is the sort of practical issue that any competent Government ought to be able to sort out. There are no big political issues here. It is a shame that the Government have not introduced the communications Bill that they have been talking about for more than three years, which could have dealt with the issue speedily, and I am pleased that the House is taking a lead this afternoon.

One of the key underlying issues is the Government’s failure to take seriously the privacy of individual citizens and the protection of personal data. Let me quote the second paragraph of the Select Committee’s report, which expresses this extremely well. It states:

“A significant underlying feature giving rise to nuisance calls is the unfair processing of personal data, something that is proscribed by the Data Protection Act 1998. Such processing includes obtaining a customer’s ‘consent’ to receive unsolicited marketing calls in ways that are at best opaque and at worst dishonest. It also includes trading personal data with companies lacking in scruples.”

The problem runs far wider than nuisance phone calls. A key modern marketing tool is the collection, use and selling on of personal data. The Minister and I have debated that previously, because the Government are currently resisting European Union proposals to give people more effective control over their personal data. We still have not had a proper explanation. Are they adopting a Eurosceptic posture, or are they being lobbied heavily by big business? Neelie Kroes, the commissioner responsible, proposes that an individual must give their explicit consent for the use of personal data. It is significant that the Select Committee has now reported that the current law is being evaded and that new legislation is needed.

The Secretary of State for Justice described the EU proposals as “mad”. I would like to ask the Minister whether the Government have yet changed their mind and whether they will commit to new legislation on the matter. It was good to see the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes), who has just been appointed as a Justice Minister, here earlier. I have corresponded with his predecessors on the matter but, frankly, found that rather unsatisfactory. I hope that the officials in the Box will draw that correspondence to his attention and ask him to look at the matter again. I have high hopes that he will take a fresh look at it and place greater emphasis on the importance of protecting people’s personal data.

We believe that new legislation is needed for explicit consent on a wider definition of personal data, and we are attracted to the idea, put forward by Which?, that there should be a time limit beyond which that consent expires. Three months might be a little on the short side, but I think that some sort of time limit would be a good idea. In the meantime, as the Select Committee has said, the Information Commissioner should use his existing powers more energetically.

A key tool for people to make complaints and to protect themselves by not answering unwanted calls is calling line identification. The privacy package introduced by TalkTalk this week shows some of what is possible. Furthermore, both the Select Committee and the all-party group were right to criticise BT’s introduction of charges on 1571 calls and on caller display. At a time when the public are facing a cost of living crisis, a monthly charge of £1.75 for CLI is just another bill that people cannot afford. A bill of £21 a year is quite unjustified. During the all-party group’s evidence sessions, I asked what the cost of doing that across the board would be, and the industry was unable to tell us. I have since learnt that, depending on the technology, costs might range between zero and a one-off set-up cost of £1. For BT, therefore, it could not possibly cost more than 0.4% of its total annual profits of £2.5 billion.

The hon. Member for Edinburgh West pointed out the full range of charges currently being made by all the companies, from £3 for this to £4 for that, and the numbers really add up. Will the Government now act to require the provision of calling line identification for free? We support the recommendation of the Select Committee and the all-party group to do that.

Prevention is better than cure. Currently, the marketing sector is incentivised to exceed the 3% abandoned calls rule and the withholding of caller ID, even though that is part of the Direct Marketing Association’s code of practice. The Select Committee recommends putting that code into legislation. Will the Government now commit to doing that?

In our previous debate, we discussed the need for one single complaints portal and a seamless operation, with data sharing between the ICO and Ofcom. When will the Minister bring forward legislation to facilitate such information-sharing between the two regulators? For the public, there must be a one-stop shop, and obviously this must not be solely an online service. It could be based on the co-regulatory model, funded by industry, as proposed by the all-party group and the Select Committee, not least because co-operation among the telephone companies would facilitate the tracing of more calls. It would also be sensible to lower the threshold for action from “substantial damage and distress” to

“nuisance, annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety”,

as recommended by the Information Commissioner. It is also worth ensuring that fines are imposed on and paid by those exceeding the 3% abandoned calls limit—and, as the Select Committee has said, persistent offenders should be repeatedly hit.

It is absolutely clear from this debate that nuisance calls are a very serious problem, especially for vulnerable and elderly people living at home alone. People are upset to be offered so-called services they do not and hope never to need, such as accident claims. They cause anxiety and distress. Simple solutions that do not add to bills and the cost of living crisis are needed. There seems to be an emerging consensus that the Government need to toughen up the legislation. DCMS Ministers have delayed in bringing forward a Bill, and I hope that the Minister will now commit to doing so. The time for research and reflection has been fulfilled; the time for action is now.