Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what further steps her Department plans to take to tackle unsolicited and nuisance telephone calls.

Matt Hancock

We are taking forward a range of legislative measures to tackle nuisance calls, which will increase consumer protection and choice by strengthening the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law. Specific actions include; strengthening the ICO’s direct marketing guidance by giving it statutory status; a proposal to extend the ICO’s powers of compulsory audit to more of the organisations that generate nuisance calls; and exploring the options for enabling the ICO to hold company directors to account for breaches of the direct marketing rules.