Information Commissioners Office still failing to collect fines as 74% remain unpaid

Information Commissioners Office still failing to collect fines as 74% remain unpaid

By Henry Cazalet - The SMS Works

Posted via GEO´ PR Wire - Gibraltar

Friend Henry Cazalet of The SMS Works  has released his latest findings in his ongoing quest to highlight the lack of enforcement by the Commissioner against transgressors - while it beggars belief, the report makes for very interesting reading and leaves many questions unanswered.

Henry and his team have been tracking the ICO’s troubles with fine collection since 2018. The ICO’s fine collection woes just seem to get worse and worse. Another year on and the ICO still hasn't found a way of improving their performance on debt collection - In fact, it seems to be getting worse!

Last years report identified just 32% of the monetary value of ICO fines issued had been paid, in this latest update, that figure has slumped to just 26%.

In the period from Jan 2020 to September 2021 the ICO has handed out 47 fines to companies that have broken the rules on spam or data protection.

Out of 47 fines in total, a modest 19 of them have been paid. Out of £7million fined, a mere £1.81 has been successfully collected.

These figures exclude the 2 massive GDPR penalties for British Airways (£20 million) and Marriott Hotels (£18.4 million) These companies have agreed to pay their fines in annual instalments.

Fines issued between Jan 2020 and Sept 2021

Total fined £7.00 million (excluding BA and Marriott Hotels)

Paid £1.81 million 25.9%

Unpaid £5.19 million 74.1%

 

Fines for SMS spam are the most likely to remain unpaid, with 82.4% of penalties yet to be collected.

Fines to home improvements companies are the least likely to be paid. The home improvements sector has received £1.6 million in fines since Jan 20, all of them for making irritating nuisance calls to unexpecting home owners. Of that, a paltry £280,000 has actually been collected, or just 17% of the total owed. By contrast charities had paid 100% of the fines issued. Learn More/...