§ Linda PerhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Telecommunications (Data Protection & Privacy) Regulations 1999 and the IC5715 Code of Conduct in controlling unsolicited faxes. [59991]
§ Mr. TimmsThe effectiveness of the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations in controlling unsolicited direct marketing faxes may be monitored by, among other things, looking at levels of registrations with, and complaints to, the Fax Preference Service (FPS); up to date figures on these are available from the Direct Marketing Association, which was appointed to run the Telephone and Fax Preference Services under the24W regulations. Since the Fax Preference Service was put on a statutory basis in 1999, total registrations have risen from under 15,000 to over 1,000,000; the FPS currently receives about 1,500 complaints a week about faxes, compared to some 700 a week at the end of last year. Information on compliance with the ICSTIS Code of Practice is published in the committee's monthly reports.
There will be an opportunity to review the regulations in more depth next year when we consult on implementation of the updated version of the European directive on which they are based.