Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East and Shadow Housing Minister has welcomed an upcoming crackdown on nuisance telephone calls.New rules will make it easier to prosecute companies who make nuisance cold calls or send nuisance text messages. The new rules follow 6 months of consultations and should be in place by April. They will lower the threshold necessary to uphold a complaint against the companies.

Emma said “The current rules about nuisance callers do not work. Despite receiving an average of almost 500 complaints every day about these calls, only 9 companies have been prosecuted over the last 3 years, a tiny fraction of the true offenders. The new rules will make it easier to prosecute firms by lowering the bar for conviction. I am pleased the new rules take this problem seriously by levying a maximum fine of half a million pounds.”

“I receive many complaints from my constituents about the scourge of nuisance text messages and cold calls. 80% of people regularly receive these calls and 33% find them intimidating. The problem is so bad that 60% of people don’t even like to answer their own phone. It is surely wrong that people are made to feel uncomfortable in their own home just from using the phone.”

“With Britons receiving almost half a billion unwanted calls and texts every year, I would urge all my constituents to complain to the Information Commissioner. I also hope that the rules will be expanded to tackle the problem of nuisance calls that originate overseas.”

February 2015