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1506868

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of (a) the Telephone Preference Service and (b) the powers of the Information Commissioner's Office to make directors liable for the fines imposed on their companies, in the context of helping to tackle nuisance calls.
tabling member constituency	Bosworth
tabling member printed	Dr Luke Evans
uin	52012
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) continues to provide an important free service for people and businesses who wish to opt out of receiving unsolicited live sales and marketing calls. Anyone who wishes to add their landline or mobile number to the TPS database can do so by visiting tpsonline.org.uk. Once a number has been registered, direct marketing organisations are legally required under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) to refrain from calling it.</p><p>The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) enforces the law and has powers to fine persons that break it. In 2021/22, the ICO issued over £2.8 million in fines issued to companies responsible for nuisance calls, texts and emails.</p><p>The ICO are currently considering responses to their consultation on new regulatory guidance on the use of their enforcement powers under PECR. This includes consideration of the circumstances where it would be appropriate to fine organisations or individual directors; and the factors the ICO would take into account when setting the level of a monetary penalty. The draft guidance can be viewed on the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/consultations/4019214/statutory-guidance-on-our-pecr-powers-2021-for-consultation.pdf" target="_blank">ICO’s website</a>.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 27/09/2022 09:53:49 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4781 label Biography information for Dr Luke Evans

1484643

registered interest
date	29/06/2022
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to combat unsolicited and nuisance calls.
tabling member constituency	Wycombe
tabling member printed	Mr Steve Baker
uin	27587
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/07/2022 answer text <p>The Government is fully aware that unsolicited direct marketing calls, known as nuisance calls, can cause anxiety and distress, particularly for the most vulnerable people in our society.</p><p>Companies that send direct marketing communications are regulated by both the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) and the data protection legislation (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). The PECR was designed to complement the data protection legislation and impose strict obligations on organisations that make direct marketing calls to individuals in the UK. The legislation is regulated and enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).</p><p>The Government’s response to the consultation <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/data-a-new-direction/outcome/data-a-new-direction-government-response-to-consultation#:~:text=The%20government%20launched%20its%20consultation,the%20UK's%20National%20Data%20Strategy." target="_blank">Data: A New Direction</a> which proposed reforms to improve the UK’s data protection regime, including potential changes to the PECR, was published on the 17th June 2022.</p><p>The Government plans to introduce new legislation to allow the ICO to take enforcement action against organisations on the basis of the number of communications (calls, texts and emails) that they generate rather than just on the number that are connected. It will also require public communications service and network providers to inform the ICO of suspicious traffic transiting their networks when they have reasonable suspicion; and increase fines for direct marketing companies that continue to break the rules. In the future, this will mean that ICO could levy fines of up to £17.5m or 4% of a businesses’ global turnover for serious infringements of the Regulations, rather than the current maximum which is set at £500,000.</p><p>These measures will upgrade the PECR enforcement regime to make it more effective, proportionate and dissuasive.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 04/07/2022 13:06:12 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
tabling member	4064 label Biography information for Mr Steve Baker

1330334

registered interest
date	07/06/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department and associated regulatory authorities are taking to reduce nuisance automated marketing calls.
tabling member constituency	Ealing, Southall
tabling member printed	Mr Virendra Sharma
uin	11717
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2021 answer text <p>Companies that make marketing calls are regulated by both the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). The PECR was designed to complement the DPA and impose strict obligations on organisations that make marketing calls to individuals in the UK.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government has taken a number of actions to tackle nuisance and automated marketing calls through amendments to the PECR. This includes introducing director liability and working with the Ministry of Justice and HM Treasury to ban cold calls from personal injury firms and pension providers. We also secured over £1 million to provide vulnerable people with call blocking devices.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The regulators Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office have developed a joint action plan to tackle the harm to consumers caused by nuisance calls and communications. This can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/policy/tackling-nuisance-calls-messages" target="_blank">https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/policy/tackling-nuisance-calls-messages</a></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>We continue to work with regulators and the telecoms industry in a joined up effort to tackle the issue of nuisance marketing communications.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Mr John Whittingdale question first answered 10/06/2021 14:32:55 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	1604 label Biography information for Mr Virendra Sharma

1300252

registered interest
date	08/03/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to help prevent aggressive cold calling of land owners by prospective buyers who contact landowners even though their land is not advertised for sale.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Darren Jones
uin	164590
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2021 answer text <p>HM Land Registry, as required by statute, includes within the register of title for England and Wales, the name and contact address details for each proprietor of a registered property. This can include email addresses, if the proprietor chooses to provide one, but it does not hold telephone numbers.</p><p>For a prescribed fee, a copy of the register entries that relate to an individual registered property can be obtained. HM Land Registry does not offer free and open access to the data they hold about property ownership. It publishes its commitment to citizens’ privacy rights in a Personal Information Charter, which can be found here:</p><p>https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry/about/personal-information-charter#your-legal-rights</p><p>The Hon Member’s constituents should be aware that they have a number of rights under the UK’s data protection regime, including the right to object to their data being processed and the right to erasure of their data. If the contact numbers are being held by an organisation that processes personal information, that organisation must comply with the data protection principles.</p><p>If anyone is concerned about the handling of their data by any organisation, they should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for further advice or to make a complaint. The ICO can be contacted by telephone on 0303 123 1113 or through their live chat facility: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/live-chat/. Further contact details are on the ICO website: <a href="https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/" target="_blank">https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/</a>.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Mr John Whittingdale question first answered 18/03/2021 18:00:14 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1278737

registered interest
date	20/01/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made with National Trading Standards on supplying call blocking devices to vulnerable people.
tabling member constituency	Bosworth
tabling member printed	Dr Luke Evans
uin	140950
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2021 answer text <p>DCMS have provided over £1 million in the last 3 years to the National Trading Standards for distribution of call blocking devices to vulnerable people. This funding helped to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from unsolicited calls including those originating from overseas. The devices have proven to be very effective, blocking 99% of scam and nuisance calls to date.</p><p>The level of nuisance calls made to UK numbers is monitored by independent bodies. Both the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) have responsibility to reduce the levels of nuisance calls, with the ICO being responsible for enforcing the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Further information about the level of nuisance calls and enforcement action taken by the ICO is available on the ICO’s website at <a href="https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/nuisance-calls-and-messages/" target="_blank">https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/nuisance-calls-and-messages/</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Mr John Whittingdale grouped question UIN 140951 140952 140953 question first answered 28/01/2021 15:50:49 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4781 label Biography information for Dr Luke Evans

1278741

registered interest
date	20/01/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of introducing director liability for nuisance calls.
tabling member constituency	Bosworth
tabling member printed	Dr Luke Evans
uin	140952
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2021 answer text <p>DCMS have provided over £1 million in the last 3 years to the National Trading Standards for distribution of call blocking devices to vulnerable people. This funding helped to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from unsolicited calls including those originating from overseas. The devices have proven to be very effective, blocking 99% of scam and nuisance calls to date.</p><p>The level of nuisance calls made to UK numbers is monitored by independent bodies. Both the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) have responsibility to reduce the levels of nuisance calls, with the ICO being responsible for enforcing the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Further information about the level of nuisance calls and enforcement action taken by the ICO is available on the ICO’s website at <a href="https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/nuisance-calls-and-messages/" target="_blank">https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/nuisance-calls-and-messages/</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Mr John Whittingdale grouped question UIN 140950 140951 140953 question first answered 28/01/2021 15:50:49 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4781 label Biography information for Dr Luke Evans

1258696

registered interest
date	07/12/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to protect vulnerable people from fraudulent cold calling.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Darren Jones
uin	126109
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/12/2020 answer text <p>Fraudulent calls can have significant and devastating impacts on people’s lives, particularly the most vulnerable in society. As well as being a nuisance, cold calling is the most common method used to initiate fraud, especially relating to pensions. That’s why the government has taken action to ban pension cold calling.</p><p>HM Treasury has introduced a ban on pension cold calling in order to reduce the chance of individual’s being enticed into fraudulent schemes.</p><p>Further to this, Home Office has collaborated with UK Finance to run the Take Five fraud awareness campaign. The campaign is designed to equip the public to challenge fraudulent approaches with confidence – be they face-to-face, on the telephone or online.</p><p>The Government continues to work on practical solutions to address nuisance and scam calls. DCMS have provided over £1 million in the last 3 years to the National Trading Standards for distribution of call blocking devices to vulnerable people. This funding helped to protect some of the most vulnerable in society from nuisance calls and scams, including those originating from overseas.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Maldon answering member printed Mr John Whittingdale question first answered 15/12/2020 15:58:26 answering member 39 label Biography information for Sir John Whittingdale
tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1200328

registered interest
date	03/06/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Nuisance Calls
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government when they last reviewed the regulation of cold calling, taking into account (1) the Consumer Rights Act 2015, (2) the powers of the Office of Information Commissioner, (3) the role of the Financial Conduct Authority, and (4) any other legislation.
tabling member printed	Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
uin	HL5192
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/06/2020 answer text <p>Government recognises that, for many, nuisance calls are at best a source of irritation, but for the most vulnerable they can be particularly stressful and damaging. We have been clear that there is no place for nuisance calls in our society and have taken a number of proactive actions in an attempt to resolve the problem.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) governs unsolicited live or automated direct marketing calls, unsolicited direct marketing emails and SMS text messages. The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent regulator for data protection. DCMS is the sponsoring government department of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). As part of fulfilling its sponsorship role, DCMS continues to work with the ICO to ensure the UK implements its high standards of data protection effectively.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The introduction of the GDPR provided strict guidelines which strengthened the definition of consent for direct marketing. Further to this, we reviewed PECR in January 2019 where we introduced a ban on cold calling relating to pensions. The ban prohibited the selling of pension services by pension providers unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to be contacted.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In addition, the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014 created a private right of redress for consumers who have entered into a contract as a result of misleading actions or aggressive practices as defined in the Regulations. Under these provisions, the consumer has the right to take civil action in the courts to have the contract unwind (so they are put back in the position they were in before the contract was made) and to receive a refund and to seek compensation for damages for any additional losses or harm suffered as a result of the trader’s actions”.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 15/06/2020 12:59:46 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4159 label Biography information for Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town