§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government: Whether they will propose to the Information Commissioner that the public would be assisted in complaining about, and providing evidence of, fraudulent collectors on behalf of data protection if they were able to do this directly on the commissioner's own website rather than being referred to unidentified trading standards or police officers. [HL4866]
§ Lord Filkin:We have no plans to do so. The commissioner carries out his statutory duties independently of government. He has no power to take legal action against these "collectors" himself, but he has been working closely with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), local trading standards services (TSSs) and various police forces to tackle the problem. These bodies have collectively agreed that the commissioner should refer complaints to their local TSS or police force, since the TSS has an established network to deal with nationwide issues.
The commissioner's staff gather evidence of complaints made to him and provide the TSS or OFT with witness statements and other relevant evidence. They also offer appropriate advice to the public and help publicise the activities of these "collectors".