While the ICO claims its investigation into fundraising will end once it deals with the last 11 charities issued with notices this week, Hugh Radojev writes that the end is unlikely to be in sight.
The ICO issued 11 charities with notices of intent to fine earlier this week. These 11 charities have so far been unnamed, but appear to have been caught up in the same operation – ‘Operation Cinnabar’ as it’s been called by the ICO – that has already seen hefty fines being paid by both the RSPCA and BHF in December.
This brings the total number of charities caught up in Cinnabar to 13, which is convenient for a number of reasons - one being that ‘Cinnabar’ does sound a bit like a cinnamon-flavoured baked good enabling me to get away with my baker's dozen pun.
Responding to the ICO, Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Institute of Fundraising, said: “A cloud has been hanging over the sector for too long about these investigations and so it is welcome the ICO has today drawn a line under the speculation of the number of charities involved”.
Quite what ‘line’ the ICO has drawn here remains to be seen – will it be a line in the sand, or a firing line? One suspects, given the ICO’s handling of its cases against the RSPCA and the British Heart Foundation, it could well be the latter.
For those who might have missed it, in early December the Daily Mail ran a triumphant piece which said that the ICO was preparing to fine both the RSPCA and BHF due to stories it had written.
Despite the ICO’s protestations that it hadn’t given the Mail a priority briefing on the issue, the Mail was still able to correctly cite the exact figures of both fines - £25,000 and £18,000, respectively.
What followed was the best part of a week’s worth of to-ing and fro-ing which culminated, finally, in the ICO confirming the fines and releasing its reports into the two charities, four days or so after the Mail had already announced it.
By that stage, the papers of course had had their fun and the charities had already paid their fines. The Mail didn’t even bother to cover the eventual ICO findings.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a complete and utter shambles. It was also one that was never properly explained by the ICO.
Given that the ICO clearly has a problem with leaks, one wouldn’t bet against the same torturous process taking place again between now and the rather distant ‘six-month’ period after which the Commissioner having issued a notice of intent, can’t then subsequently issue a fine.
The sector is already well aware of the kind of damage the Daily Mail and Sun can do in six months. Meanwhile, the ICO has been unable to provide a clearly defined timeframe in which its latest findings/possible fines will be published or, indeed, whether it will be issued in a lump sum or individually.
“As all cases are different, we don't yet know how or when we'll publish any fines that we decide to issue at the end of the process,” said an ICO spokeswoman today. In other words, good news for the press, but bad news for the charities.
Also, the ICO has promised that it will now be “focusing its attention on ensuring compliance within the charity and fundraising sector” alongside both the Fundraising Regulator and the Charity Commission.
Quite what that means in practice is hard to say, but based on recent history, you’d be brave to bet against charities getting a battering from the ICO again at some point in the future.
Perhaps all will become clear at the Fundraising and Regulatory Compliance Conference taking place in Manchester on 21 February where the ICO, Fundraising Regulator and Charity Commission will set out their collective "requirements and expectations for fundraising bodies and their boards under current and forthcoming data protection legislation".
Then again, perhaps not.
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