Over the past six months, Steve's Parliamentary colleague Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) has been running the 'No to Nuisance Calls' campaign. Two weeks ago he handed in a petition with over 17,500 signatures into Downing Street. The campaign calls for the Information Commissioner's powers to be strengthened to take in all forms of unsolicited contact and for there to be a single, simple point of contact for any individual wishing to protect their privacy from unwanted calls, texts, faxes and emails.
Mike said: "Last year there were 650 million silent calls made in the UK, and 45 million spam texts sent in Europe. Some 3 million UK adults will be scammed out of an average of £800 each this year by fraudulent marketing calls. It is clear that we have an industry in crisis."
In May 2011, the Information Commissioner's Office was given powers to fine companies up to £500,000 if they broke the rules on unsolicited texts and phone calls. Last year it received more than 7,000 complaints —a 43% increase on 2011 when fewer than 5,000 complaints were received. The ICO used these powers for the first time last year and issued fines totalling over £250,000 to two illegal marketers who distributed millions of spam texts. I am meeting the ICO regularly and know that they are doing a lot more work to investigate companies which break the rules. This weekend saw an announcement that three companies face fines totalling £250,000 for unsolicited marketing calls.
Steve said: "Although this is a good start, I join Mike in believing that the ICO should have the powers to go further. The campaign calls for the ICO's powers to be strengthened to take in all forms of unsolicited contact and for there to be a single point of contact for any individual wishing to protect their privacy. Until we do that, companies will keep trying to find ways to get round the maze of regulations."
Steve is now a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on nuisance calls, and the group's statement of purpose is: "To increase awareness of nuisance calls and other forms of unsolicited contact in Parliament. To promote policies to strengthen the powers of a single regulator to take in all forms of unsolicited contact whilst also promoting the idea of a single, simple point of contact for individuals wishing to register to protect their privacy from unwanted calls, texts, and faxes."