New government consultation pledges to give personal financial penalties to directors who do not tackle cold-calling.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are introducing plans to alleviate nuisance automated calls by personally fining a company’s director. This comes from an 18-month plan to deter companies from using nuisance calls by financial penalty. There is concern that fining the business has done little to prevent these calls, so this new consultation has gone a step further.
Ofcom have revealed that the British public deal with 3.9 billion unsolicited phone calls and texts each year. However, the number of complaints has declined due to amplifying regulation laws. Alongside financial penalties, changes in regulations means companies are forced to display their numbers when calling their customer base. An estimated £2m has been issued in fines since laws were changed in 2015 by the Information Commissioners Office.
If the new consultation is implemented in August, imposing personal financial fines rather than company ones could see nuisance calling fall dramatically. Margot James, a junior minister for the department, has called nuisance calls a ‘blight to society’.
