Hammer blow for nuisance call firms

Super-regulator appointed to clamp down on pests.

The Sunday Post campaign to stamp out nuisance phone calls has chalked up another victory.

The UK Government has announced a new super-regulator that will make it easier for people to report nuisance phone calls.

Earlier this year tens of thousands of readers signed up to a petition we delivered to Downing Street, which included a demand for a one-stop shop for reporting nuisance calls.

Now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in London has said that is now on the agenda. Currently complaints about nuisance calls and texts are handled by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) while silent or abandoned calls come under Ofcom’s remit.

But the Government’s proposals would see one regulator tackle all nuisance calls and texts.

The news has been welcomed by Edinburgh MP Mike Crockart, who is attempting to pilot backbench legislation through the Commons that would clamp down on firms who plague people with unsolicited marketing calls, silent calls and spam text messages.

He said: “There is no doubt that the announcement would not have come without the support of thousands of Sunday Post readers the 20,000 signatures which the campaign collected in its first few months are its backbone.

“Although the announcement is welcome, legislation is only something it will ‘consider’ if progress is not made through non-legislative means.

“I think the industry has had long enough to reform and I believe legislation is needed.

“My Private Member’s Bill is due to receive its second reading on November 1.

“Ahead of that the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuisance Calls, of which I am co-chair, is holding an inquiry into people’s experiences with nuisance calls and their thoughts on how the problem should be tackled.

“People have had to put up with this menace for too long so I am pleased that we now have the Government’s attention.”

Current watchdog the ICO has also revealed it is preparing to slap a massive fine on a company found guilty of bombarding people with text messages. Investigators have been working with mobile operators to track the SIM cards used to conduct the spamming operation.

The ICO confirmed that, having exhausted the complaints process, they will be fining the firm at the centre of the allegations within weeks. The ICO is hopeful that other measures unveiled by Culture Secretary Maria Miller last week will help them to fine more firms.

The Government is also considering lowering the threshold at which regulators can issue fines. Currently the ICO must prove the volume or nature of the messages has caused “substantial damage and distress”.

The new rules may mean they only need prove the spammers are “annoying”.

An ICO spokesman said: “That would mean we’d need a few hundred rather than thousands of complaints to start action against a firm.”

Unveiling a raft of measures aimed at nuisance phone calls and stamping out inappropriate images online last week Culture Secretary Maria Miller said: “The communications industry has undergone change at an unprecedented pace over the last decade.

“In this digital age we must ensure the needs of the consumer are not lost in the dash for progress and the changes we are making will put the British public at the heart of the sector.