Rogue directors responsible for nuisance calls to be held personally responsible

The Government has announced that from the spring of 2017 directors of companies responsible for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) will be made personally responsible, and subject to fines of up to £500,000 each by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This will exert a powerful deterrent effect on rogue directors considering setting up a nuisance call operation in clear breach of the law.

In the last year the ICO has collected from only four out of 22 fines in full. Companies go bankrupt before any fine can be collected and directors can set up another company and resume making nuisance calls or spam texts.

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said: “Nuisance callers are a blight on society, causing significant distress to elderly and vulnerable people. We have been clear that we will not stand for this continued harassment, and this latest amendment to the law will strike another blow to those businesses and company bosses responsible.”

The DMA welcomes this move by the Government. Those responsible for the scourge of nuisance calls to think twice before they setup a new business.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: “Making directors responsible will stop them ducking away from fines by putting their company into liquidation. It will stop them leaving by the back door as the regulator comes through the front door.”

Consumers continue to make thousands of complaints to the ICO and other regulatory bodies every year. This is one more step in the fight against nuisance calls and should go quite a long way in alleviating the problem.