Nuisance calling could cost companies millions in fines

NUISANCE callers will face multi-million pound fines as part of a crackdown, the Government has announced.

Rogue companies will pay drastically increased penalties of upwards of £17million for sending spam texts and calls, which have surged during the pandemic. The crackdown comes as ministers are moving to shake up the privacy watchdog in the wake of criticism it is focusing on headlines rather than its day job.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has come under fire for launching an investigation into how footage of former health secretary Matt Hancock engaging in a Covid rulebreaking embrace with an aide was leaked to a newspaper.

Announcing the reforms, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said he wanted the ICO to shift its focus on stripping away red tape for business around data laws to usher in a “golden age of growth and innovation” for the UK.

As part of the shake-up, the Government plans to increase the ICO’S maximum fine for nuisance callers from £500,000 to be in line with GDPR penalties, which amounts to 4 per cent of a company’s revenue or €20 million (£17million). Mr Dowden also wants to scrap the endless cookie notifications ushered in under the EU’S GDPR laws by writing a post-brexit British version.

The reforms will also refocus the ICO on simplifying rules for companies and researchers around using people’s data so they can create new technologies and services.

The Culture Secretary said: “Data is one of the most important resources in the world and we want our laws to be based on common sense, not box ticking.”

The move comes after the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, who is due to step down from the role next month, was told by MPS to “concentrate on the day job rather than chase the headlines” after launching the investigation into how the Hancock footage was leaked from the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, the front-runner to replace her, John Edwards, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner, defended the Hancock investigation when questioned by MPS yesterday.

Appearing in front of the culture select committee, he added: “I think investigating the security of a Government facility such as that and the way it is responsible for the data it is entrusted with is an entirely legitimate activity of an information commissioner.”