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.

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.

*In March 2012 the ICO introduced an online reporting mechanism for people to report nuisance calls and spam texts.