Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the costs to Ofcom of couriering documents to its (a) board members and (b) Chief Executive in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The department does not hold this information
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make representations to the BBC on increasing the provision of voice-overs for BBC programmes.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The statutory target for audio description is 10% for most broadcasters. The BBC in 2010 committed a higher target and now provides audio description of 20% of its content on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many complaints concerning (a) automated and (b) live telesales calls were received by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in each year since 2009; how many fines were issued by the ICO against offending companies in each of these years; and how many of those fines were for the maximum possible amount.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) are the most relevant pieces of legislation in relation to unsolicited calls and texts, and are administered and enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The number of complaints received by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in each year since 2009, concerning a) automated and b) live telesales calls; and the number of fines issued for breaches of PECR in relation to each category is set out in the table below. None of the fines issued to date have been for the maximum of £500,000. In determining the level of fine, the ICO takes into account the seriousness of the contravention, the aggravating and mitigating factors and the organisation’s ability to pay.
Financial year | Auto Calls | Number of fines (auto calls) | Live calls | Number of fines (Live calls) | |
2008/9 | 1902 | - | 1642 | - | |
2009/10 | 1677 | - | 1769 | - | |
2010/11 | 1745 | - | 1706 | - | |
2011/12* | 3680 | - | 1685 | 1 | |
2012/13 | 82803 | - | 31662 | 2 | |
2013/14 | 74024 | - | 56269 | 2 | |
2014/15 | 80188 | - | 75082 | 4 | |
2015/16 (to end Sept 15) | 37942 | 1 | 42950 | 2 |
*In March 2012 the ICO introduced an online reporting mechanism for people to report nuisance calls and spam texts.